Darkened Love, Shattered Soul
by Todpirscher
Summary: As Squall is learning the ways of the wolf, some interesting new Heartless appear and some old friends as well. Sequel to The Wolf and the Lion.
1. Chapter 1

I have finally gotten the sequel up. My apologies to everyone. I burnt out, had major writer's bloc and am trying to juggle my AP classes, Honors classes, Lacrosse season, and kung-fu teaching. It's…difficult. lol. But, I am back and chapter 2 is already in the works. For anyone who hasn't read "The Wolf and The Lion," you don't' really have to, but it'll clear things up for you. Alright, enough of my babbling.

Disclaimer-I do not own any of FFVIII, FVII, FX or Kingdom Hearts, or anything else Square Enix or Disney for all intensive purposes. The games, their character, storylines, weapons and monsters all belong to their respective owners. So please don't' sue me and leave ma lone. Thanks.

* * *

Waiting for Cloud to show up was very boring. I thought he would have been a better tracker, but maybe not. He _had_ given me an hour's worth of a head start. Though, by the sun's position the hour was up and it had been another hour, more or less. I didn't even hear or smell anything of Cloud which would, or should, come way before sight as I'd learned. Laying down I sighed, my senses still alert even as my mind wandered.

Something started to rustle behind me and I jumped up, ready for whatever was there. To my surprise, Cloud leaped out at me, hitting me full in the chest and pinning me to the ground as my breath flew out of me. Never underestimate the enemy. Rule number one, damnit. And never let your guard down was rule number two. I had obviously ignored both, and Cloud had taken full advantage of it. He knew I hadn't been paying attention.

He nuzzled me in the neck, biting gently before jumping off and grinning wolfishly at me. Which would have been hard not to do considering he was a wolf, as was I. With a growl I jumped at him, but he danced out of the way and took off. Damn, now I was chasing him. Bolting into the woods on his trail, I had to rely on my nose since any noise he was making was overshadowed by the noise I was making. Every so often I'd catch flashes of his golden fur before he disappeared into the green again. After a few more minutes, I got the distinct feeling that we were just going in circles.

This was all still new to me and I hadn't quite grasped the concept of watching, listening, and smelling the multitude of things to sense all at once. It was also weird seeing in only washed out colors. Yes, the answer to the question that everyone seemed to want to know. How do dogs see? In washed out colors, people.

Paused and panting I looked around, ears pricked up and listening for him. I didn't have to wait long though because he crashed into my side, sending me sprawling again. "You're not very good at this," he barked at me. Cloud padded over to me, barely winded.

"You just have more experience," I whined. Yes, it came out a whine. But the vocals of a wolf are a lot different than a human's. A wolf whine isn't the same thing as a human whine. And I'm not just trying to defend myself here. Cloud howled a laugh as I glared at him. While he was distracted in his laughing at me, I took advantage and pounced on him. Surprised, he struggled underneath me as I growled, "I believe I just won." Cloud started to change underneath me, and I changed above him. Fluid, effortless, and completely painless. Of course, the first change, and after he'd bitten me, had been worse than hell, as he'd promised. But the way I saw it, it was all worth it.

Cloud made a face at me, before grinning and saying, "Do you remember where our clothes are?" Wow, what a question. As if I could, or would, remember at this point. Shaking my head, I leaned down and kissed him hard on the mouth and he moaned, grabbing my bare sides tightly and pulling me closer to him.

"Damn it, I've been tracking you guys for hours, where the hell have you… Oh." I jerked away from Cloud and looked up to see who had come and interrupted us. This was the whole reason we ran into the forest so much; to avoid things like this. Cloud pushed himself up on his elbows as I slid off of him.

Raising an eyebrow he said, "Tifa." Though his tone was hard, his eye danced and his eyebrow arched invitingly. "Care to join us?" A smile spread across his face as Tifa's face changed from embarrassed to annoyed.

"No, not really," came her flippant reply. She looked from me to Cloud and back before saying, "Cid wants you both back now. Clothed, preferably." Tifa grimaced as Cloud jumped up with a laugh.

"Awww, don't worry Tifa. We'll be back and we won't wander around naked. I promise."

**POV

* * *

**

Squall and I hadn't exactly gotten back as quickly as Cid might have wanted, but that was his problem. And Squall and I had had fun so it was all good. Even if Cid didn't think so. When we finally made it to Cid's room – we'd made a couple of short "stops" on the way – we saw that the door was open and everyone was lounging around on all of the open furniture. So me and Squall stood as Cid glared at us with his arms crossed over his chest.

"And what took you guys so long?" Tifa gave Cid a warning look and Yuffie giggled. Tidus looked absolutely clueless as he whispered something to Sora and Riku. Yuna smiled knowingly at me and Squall before putting a hand on Tidus' shoulder who still looked absolutely confused. I found it funny how everyone but Tidus seemed to have caught on to Squall and me. It wasn't as if we were _extremely_ open about ourselves, but it was enough for someone who'd known us to realize what was going on behind the scenes. I guess Tidus was just…special.

I threw Cid an amused look, amazed that this kind of opportunity had actually come up. "Well if you really want to know Squall and I were – " Comprehension suddenly flooded Cid's face.

"Uh, never mind. Just, get here faster next time." I nudged Squall in the stomach and he grabbed my ass. I tried to hold back a laugh as Cid went into Army Commando mode.

His hands went to his hips, with his elbows bowed out as he stood as straight as possible. He chewed on his cigarette as one hand momentarily left his hip to agitatedly adjust his goggles. "Now that you're all here," he directed a glare in my direction specifically. As if Squall had not willingly stayed with me. If anything, _I_ was the victim. "A couple f people have gone missing in town. One of whom, is a good friend of mine."

"Is it your lady friend?" Yuffie swooned to Cid, her eyes big and puppy-dog like. Cid threw a blue ceramic mug at her which shattered on the wall and put a dent in said wall. Smooth Cid, real smooth. "You could have just said "No," Yuffie whined slightly and started to pick up the remains of the mug.

As much as well enjoyed harassing the "old man" we didn't enjoy seeing him upset. And while he sometimes threw inanimate objects at us because he felt like it, I think he had actually wanted to hit Yuffie. Good thing was, her Great Ninja skills had actually been useful in helping her to duck the flying object.

"We were asked to look for them and I said yes." If it wasn't obvious before, it was obvious now that Cid's "lady friend" was missing. The town people had asked us to do random odd search jobs before because we were just cool like that. Oh fine, it was because we were kind of like, unofficial protectors of the town since we were the only one's who actually knew how to use something other than a pitchfork for self-defense. Strangely enough, Cid had let us fall into that position, albeit grudgingly. I'm not too sure about the whole story since it happened before I got here, but it was certainly something that I was going to find out about in the near future.

"The people's families are going to make sure that they are in fact missing tomorrow. And then the day after, we're gonna go looking if the people haven't turned up." Cid stood strong, but his face was creased with lines of worry. Whoever this woman was, she better be worth all this worry or I was going to have to have a talk with Cid. Which also meant that I had to talk to Yuffie. That girl seemed to find out everything about everyone sooner or later. Well, I guess sooner rather than later, but, let's not get into technicalities.

Everyone took Cid's ensuing silence to mean that the meeting was over. Yuffie left first with Tifa, followed by Riku and Sora, and then Tidus and Yuna. Stepping towards Cid, I put a hand on his shoulder. "Cid, don't worry so much… We'll find her." Cid turned to look at me to see if I was trying to joke with him. "Look, if you can give me and Squall something that smells like her, or the other people, we can find them." I smiled and Cid seemed to brighten and look less haggard. "You can count on us." I grinned at him, and for a moment Cid grinned back and became his old self again.

"Aright, now gi'out of my room before I kick you guys out." I was about to protest and give Cid a hard time but Squall pushed me out of his room.

As Squall closed the door I said, "What was that all about? He needs a good laugh. Or, at least be able to throw something at me."

Squall gave me a look that could peel paint off of walls. "Cloud, you are such…a naïve person sometimes." He shook his head as I gave him a push. "And an immature person, as well."

"Why do you say that?"

"Use your head," he poked me in the side of my head and I tried to bite his fingers. "How do you think I felt when you were missing? I wasn't eating or sleeping or anything." He paused, as if waiting for me to say something. Or maybe just waiting for everything to be absorbed into me head. "Cid is going to be the same way, and joking around with him isn't going to make it better."

He pushed the door to our room open. We shared a room now, having grown tired of switching back and forth. Squall's old room was vacant for whoever else might come by and decide to stay. "Reassuring him like you did at first was good." He ducked his head to look out the window. "And then when he told us to get out, we should just leave. Not make commentary." I scowled at him, even though he did have a point. I would be the same way if Squall disappeared. Thing was, the bad stuff seemed to happen to me most of the time.

"You understand?"

With a heavy sigh I said, "Yes, now please stop lecturing me." The scowl changed to a grin as Squall tugged off his jacket and then pulled his shirt over his head, revealing his muscled back to me. Although, revealed is kind of a term used to show discovery. And I was quite familiar with Squall's body. Every dip, curve and line it had to offer.

"It's night," he said looking at the darkened window. Well if that wasn't going off on a tangent, I don't know what is. "We should go to sleep." He put one booted foot up on the chair to unlace the boot, and followed with the other.

Cocking an eyebrow I said, "And when has the fact that it's nighttime ever affected anything we do?" Tilting my chair backwards and crossing my arms over my chest, I waited for an answer to my question.

"Well," he kicked his boots off into the corner of the room. "For one thing, tonight will probably be the last time we get a good night's sleep." Squall turned around to look at me. "After tomorrow we'll probably have to go and find these missing people and we'll be getting up early." He stopped talking there as if that answered everything. I must have been looking at him as if I were waiting for him to continue because he gave an exasperated sigh and said, "That means that we should get a good nights sleep _now_ so we don't have to worry about it later."

So he did have a point, but really, what difference does it make? "I think I like you better when you don't make sense." I grinned at him.

"If I was all that logical, I wouldn't be in love with you." He rolled his eyes at me.

"That's not true," I protested and kicked my boots off at him. Squall ducked them easily.

"Yes it would. Because normally, guys don't fall in love with guys."

"And normal people don't turn into werewolves and howl at the moon."

"Touché," he said. "I think you've just proved that you do have a brain."

My mouth dropped open and I shouted, "Hey!" Squall however, seemed quite indifferent to my protests. So, I did the next best thing: I jumped at him.

He stepped to the side and grabbed my arm, pulling me into a bear hug. I felt his breath on my neck as his head dipped down and his lips touched my neck. One of his hands slipped under my shirt and rested on my abdomen, just above my pants. He pressed his teeth gently into my neck.

"Come on, let's go to bed."

**POV

* * *

**

I was having a very interesting dream. I was sitting in a chair in the middle of nowhere and someone was pounding on my head. Except, it didn't hurt, but it made loud, echoing sounds in…wherever I was. Or maybe the echoing sounds were in my head. And then someone was pulling my eyelids open.

"Oh shit!" I leaped off the bed and saw a surprised looking Cloud staring at me.

His face became amused as he said, "And I though I was the only one who had nightmares." And then I realized what the banging was about. Someone was banging on the door. "If I'd known you were going to react like that, I would have opened the door." He flopped back onto the bed and stretched with a groan. "But since you're up, you can do it." He grinned at me with his tousled hair and the sheets down around his hips and I almost got back into bed with him.

Almost.

It took me a couple of seconds to locate a pair of boxers, but I pulled them on and went to the door. As I opened it, I had to duck away from a volley of Yuffie's fists which she was supposed to be directing at the door. Because the door wasn't there, she fell forward and toppled into me where we both ended up on the floor.

I looked up at her as she supported herself above me with her hands on either side of my head. "Can I help you?"

Yuffie scrambled up and pouted at me. "If you would have just answered the door when I first knocked, _Squall_." She said it with particular malice but I couldn't help correcting her.

"Leon, Yuffie. It's Leon."

"What – ever, _Leon_." Someone had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. "One of the townspeople said that they saw some black shapes at the edge of the forest."

"Wait, you don't mean…_Heartless_ do you?" Cloud appeared at my side, with boxers on thankfully. He had a tendency to forget his clothing and walk around naked when he first woke up.

Yuffie nodded. "That's _exactly_ what I mean. Or, at least that's what Cid is telling us to view them as right now." The Ninja shrugged. "It could just have been some drunk guy, or a person with an over imaginative imagination. But Cid is upping things a bit." Now Yuffie grinned and I knew something bad was coming. "He wants you guys to go out and track them and get rid of them. If they even exist. Have fun!" She grinned and ran off down the hall, leaving me and Cloud to our fate.

"Well, isn't this a wonderful start to the morning?" Cloud's cheerful voice caused me to turn and look at him. Never had I seen him happy about taking on a mission. "What? I haven't ever had the opportunity to track something like this. You were easy to track." I glared at him and went to search for my clothes. "But only because I knew you," he amended. "And because there are only so many places you can go in the town."

I pulled out my white t-shirt and my black leather pants. "These guys were seen right on the edge of the forest, near town. You don't think they'll be easy to find?"

"No, but the difference is, the forest is a more…feral setting. I like it better."

And with that, he started to change into a wolf.

* * *

"Maybe the person who told us about this _was_ drunk," I said, slicing at a tree branch with my Gunblade. The cut was clean and smooth, and the branch fell to the ground with a leafy _thunk_. Cloud barked at me, and I took it for agreement. I had been following him and he'd been following some kind of scent for a while now. It also didn't help that I had to lug around his Buster sword. His explanation was, in case he had to change back for some reason and needed. I think he just enjoyed seeing me sweat.

Suddenly, the golden wolf leaped forward and crashed through the bushes. I took off after him, hoping that he'd finally found something of the "Heartless" we were supposed to be finding. Following him I saw Cloud suddenly leap and pounce on something. A high pitched squealing filled the air and I wondered what the hell he had found.

Coming to his side, he picked up his head and showed me his prize. "A rabbit?" I snarled. "You made me run that distance for a stupid rabbit?" Cloud shook his head and jumped from foot to foot, causing the little creature to flop around in his mouth. "No, I don't want to share." He looked forlorn for a moment but then began to munch on the rabbit and quickly ate the whole thing.

"Let's go back home, I'm hungry too. We'll come back out later." Cloud nodded his wolf head and bounded to the forefront. He glanced back at me before continuing forward, much more slowly than before.

After we had been walking for a while, I suddenly noticed how quite the forest had gotten. Not that quiet, peaceful forest quiet with the soft chattering of birds and the sound of running water. This was utter, dead silence like everything had suddenly died. "Cloud…" I said softly. But he seemed to have picked up on it as well. He was standing stock still except for his ears and nose which were twitching.

Abruptly, he turned to his right with a snarl and leaped at…a shadow? No, not a shadow because he'd clamped his teeth around the neck of whatever it was and had pinned it to the ground. Then I noticed the familiar heart shaped design on its chest.

Heartless.

So the person had been right and not drunk or over imaginative. I pulled out my Gunblade as the Heartless Cloud had pinned to ground burst into smaller shadows and disappeared. Turning around, I heard a low growling and saw what looked like ten or fifteen pitch black wolves surrounding us. Except, the hearts on their chests instantly gave them up as Heartless. The creatures' lifeless white eyes looked like holes in their heads, while their yellowed teeth clicked and dripped saliva.

All at once, the circle of wolves leaped at us. Dropping to my left, I swung Gunblade in an arc to take out three wolves. Two of them burst into shadows, and one at the end was thrown backwards into a tree. The other wolves sailed over my ducked body and I slashed at their backs. Two more burst into shadows and one that I hit and didn't die emitted an unearthly howl. It then leaped at me with a savage snarl. I swung the sword up, straight in front of me and caught the Heartless wolf in its belly and chest.

Cloud slammed into one of the wolves coming at my right and I turned to the left. But I was too late and the wolf on my left sank its teeth into my thigh. With a yell, I slammed the hilt of the Gunblade into its head and it promptly let go. Flicking my wrist, the tip of my sword sliced open the wolf's head and that was the end of that.

I made a circle in place, surveying the area for any other Heartless that might be lurking around. Nothing moved except for Cloud who was changing into a human. Satisfied that nothing was gong to be leaping out at us again anytime soon, I looked down at my leg.

"Shit, what the, what the hell is that?" Black shadows were oozing out of my thigh like diseased blood and wrapping around it. A burning sensation started in the bite holes and started to work its way down my leg and then up to the rest of my body, causing it to seize up.

I must have fallen because Cloud had grabbed me under the arms. I couldn't see who it was, but it had to have been him since he was the only other person there. His voice was calling my name, but he sounded so far away. I hadn't even realized that I couldn't see anymore, either because my eyes were closed or because I'd been blinded. The only thing I was really conscious of was the constant burning that turned into sharp pains as it neared my chest. And then, on top of all that, it felt like I was slowly being crushed under a boulder. The amount of pain would have had even me screaming, had I had enough conscious control over my body to open my mouth and have been able to scream.

Amidst the pain, my mind feebly formed questions that I couldn't have answered even if my mind had been working properly.

Was I turning into a Heartless? Was my heart going to pop out of my chest and condemn me to eternal darkness?

And then as quickly as all this had started, the pain started to recede from sharp, crushing pains into a burning sensation, away from my chest and back down to my leg. Gradually, Cloud's voice became louder and my vision began to clear. "Squall, damn you, you better not die on me now." His arms were wrapped around my shoulders and he had my head to his chest, and his head was to mine. I knew he was listening to my heart; to see if it was still there. Sure enough, it had to have been otherwise I wouldn't have been able to see any of this. I looked down at the leg to see the last of the shadows slide out of the puncture wounds and disperse. Fresh blood began to drip from it. And it was red blood, to my immense relief.

"Cloud…" It didn't come out as strong as I had been hoping. My voice sounded more like a croak than anything else, and my throat closed up because it was suddenly so dry. I wasn't sure if he had heard me and was preparing to say his name again, but then he looked up at me, his blue eyes pained and full of worry.

"Oh my God, Squall. You're okay." His voice cracked and he held me even tighter. "I…I thought you were going to die, that you were going to be a Heartless."

I pushed myself up, slowly at first, but then with more authority as I realized that I wasn't going to collapse and I could support myself. "Cloud, I'm here, everything's fine now." That might have been a lie, since I certainly had no idea what the hell had just happened, or even what would happen. But Cloud's distress was more important to me now than what might happen.

I disentangled myself from his arms and wrapped my arms around him. In truth, I was very surprised to realize that Cloud was…crying. It had never struck me that Cloud would ever cry, that I was worth crying over, that he'd ever cry over me, for me.

Cloud buried his head in my chest as his body shuddered. "You were gone, Squall." The gravity of what had just happened hit me like a ton of bricks. What would have happened if I had died? Or become a Heartless? Or…whatever the hell that thing had done to me.

I came to the sudden conviction, as I kissed the top of Cloud's head and breathed in his scent with new meaning, that yes, I guess I was worth crying over.

And yes, Cloud could be my reason to cry too.

* * *

I hope you guys liked it. My beta is stupid and has had the story for over a week and still has not read it. So I proofread it myself. –ponders- I know Yuna isn't in Kingdom Hearts or Kingdom Hearts too, but I really like her and she plays a part in the story soooooooo… It's just like how some people make up their own characters. No bid deal I hope.

--Todpirscher


	2. Chapter 2

I knooooooooooooooooooooow, long time no update. My apologies. But things are hectic here as you all already know and yadda yadda yadda. I'm going to try and get the next chapter up a little quicker. Maybe even by this week if my muse decides to be nice. That's it for now. Enjoy.

* * *

"Explain that again?" Cid was staring at Cloud with a bemused expression. "And this time, say it a little slower."

After Cloud had calmed down and I was sure that I wasn't going to have a relapse of…whatever had happened, he had immediately wanted to leave the forest and return to town to tell Cid what had happened. Sure, I also wanted to tell Cid what happened but Cloud was practically leaping out of his skin to get back. Although he didn't say as much, his main reason was probably to get me back so Yuna could look me over.

We had been slightly delayed because we'd stopped at our room so Cloud could get dressed. Obviously because he was a wolf and I wasn't carrying any spare clothes for him. Hell, the Buster sword was enough weight. And he complained that I had to carry it. He had offered to carry it as a human, but I doubted many people would have appreciated the display. I would have, but the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one I guess. And it would have been kind of bad to mentally scar people…

Cloud took a deep breath and sighed before opening his mouth to talk again. But he didn't get a chance to because Tifa, Yuffie and Yuna burst through the door. "Squall!" Yuffie squealed before pouncing on me and throwing her arms around my neck. "You're not dead!" Yes, thanks, I noticed. I pushed the squealing "Ninja" off of me. Honestly, Ninjas were supposed to be quiet and gothic, not happy and bubbly, right?

"Cloud, Leon, what happened?" Tifa stood next to Cid, looking matronly with one hand on her hip.

Yuna came to my side and without her asking I tore open my pants over the bite wound. The leather was already ruined so it didn't matter much.

Cloud was about to talk and explain, but he was again cut off. This time it was Cid. "Cloud was going to explain before we were rudely interrupted." He glared at Yuffie who rolled her eyes and ignored him.

Jumping at the sudden lull of conversation, Cloud launched into his telling of what happened. He rewrote some it however, when it came to the aftermath but that was fine with me.

While Cloud was talking, Yuna saw to me. She touched her forehead and then put her hand over the wound as said hand began to glow. Hovering over my leg for a moment, she traveled it up over my heart, to my head, and then to my leg again where the bite mark healed instantly. She smiled gently and then looked at Cloud who was finishing up his retelling of the story.

"That sounds pretty bad," Yuffie murmered.

"No really?" Cid grunted, but the sarcasm wasn't as sharp as it would normally have been. He was furiously working the cigarette in his mouth. "Well now, this adds to our problems. Considering they didn't find the missing people." He looked from Cloud to me. "Did you guys happen to notice anything about them while you were out?" Me and Cloud both shook our heads. Cloud looked about ready to shoot back some snippy comment but held it in. Disgruntled, Cid turned to Yuna. "What's wrong with him?"

She shrugged and said, "Give me a moment." Walking to Cloud she put a glowing hand over his heart and then his head and back to his heart. Turning she looked at us and said, "Fine, as far as I can see. Though," she paused and I balled my hand into a fist. It didn't sound like whatever she had to say would be something good. "They both have a kind of darkness in their hearts. It's obviously not from the Heartless, because Cloud has it too. But, it might be because you are both werewolves. The good thing though, is that it seemed to have protected you from anything that the Heartless was trying to do to you." I released my hand. Okay, not as bad as it could have been. But Cloud looked suddenly so forlorn that I realized that maybe this _was_ going to get pretty bad.

"Well," Tifa said in an attempt to draw our attention away from this nice bit of news. "You two go get something to eat. We'll be looking for those missing people tomorrow, so we'll be getting up early." I stood up and Yuna gave Cloud a little push to get him going.

"Thanks Yuna," I said gruffly. She smiled and went over to Tifa and Cid, who had motioned her over.

I grabbed Cloud's arm before anything else could happen and dragged him out of the room. Yuffie followed. "Well, I'll see you guys later." She sounded a bit belated, as if Cloud's sudden somber mood at gotten into her. The Ninja still managed to dance/run/hop away down the hall though.

I started to walk down the hall in the opposite direction towards food and Cloud followed. "Squall, I'm – "

"No, Cloud, don't say you're sorry."

A pause and then, "But I did that – "

I took the stairs down to the eating hall two at a time. At the bottom I turned around and said, "You didn't do anything. It was a decision made on both of our parts. You didn't force me to do anything."

The hall was empty and we quickly got food and sat down at a table. Cloud seemed to be thinking of another way he could pin all this on himself. Sometimes he seemed so intent on avoiding blame and not apologizing and other times he was just as persistent in taking the blame.

"If anything," I began, "You saved me back there. Who knows what would have happened if I _wasn't_ a werewolf and I had gotten bitten." Cloud shrugged and nodded his head.

And then he smiled. "I think anything I'd have to say on the matter seems kind of stupid now. Or, at least so outlandish it's ridiculous."

I nodded. "Good. Now stops sulking."

The rest of the meal was eaten in contended silence. It was one of those times when it didn't matter that anything was or wasn't said because you were just happy being with your lover. I guess near death experiences can have that effect on people.

* * *

Our current expedition through the forest was somewhat reminiscent of yesterday's little excursion except that this time, it wasn't just me and Cloud. Tidus had joined us. But, that didn't mean I was particularly happy to have him with us. He talked a lot. I don't know if it was just because he had nothing better to do – like being alert for Heartless or some other frivolous task like that – or that he just…liked to talk.

"Are you and Cloud gay?" I stopped midswing with my Gunblade, aimed at a low tree branch. Tidus jumped over a log and looked at me, waiting. Cloud barked somewhere up ahead and I heard him circling back to see why we had stopped.

Shaking my head, I said, "You're not joking, are you." Tidus shook his head as Cloud bounded out of the underbrush with a growl, telling us to get going. Turning I followed Cloud's lead and heard Tidus scramble to follow.

"Well," Tidus said behind me, "are you?"

"Tidus, honestly." Releasing an exasperated sigh, I said, "Yes, Tidus, we are gay." Cloud looked back at me and then continued on. Maybe it was because it was so early in the morning, but I just didn't feel like dealing with Tidus and his questions. Maybe it was just that he was annoying.

In any case, my answer had shut Tidus up for the time being. Walking along in relative silence, sunlight started to filter through the trees. That made it easier to see things, but it also created more shadows, more places for the Heartless to hide.

"Cloud!" Startled, it took me a moment to realize that it was Yuffie shrieking up ahead. "Oh, you look so cute as a wolf! Just adorable!" The Ninja had picked up Cloud's forelegs and was now hugging an irate looking wolf around the neck.

With a snarl, Cloud wiggled out of her grasp and bounded over to me and Tidus, where he went behind my legs and glared at Yuffie. "I don't think he likes that," Tidus said, his eyes slipping to Cloud for a brief moment.

"No, I don't think so either," I followed up gruffly. "What are you doing here anyway Yuffie? You're supposed to be in town."

She grinned and put her hands on her hips, leaning forward slightly. "Well now, wouldn't you like to know." She giggled and looked at me.

"Yuffie," Cloud snapped behind me. Tidus uttered a soft, "Wow," at Cloud's transformation but that went largely unnoticed. "We're on a damn mission. Stop screwing around and tell us what's going on."

Leaning back, Yuffie crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. "You guys are no fun. I feel bad for Tidus." I feel bad for us. "Anyway, we think the people are actually in town. In the deserted part of town, with all the big scary buildings." She shuddered.

"Oh what a great Ninja you are Yuffie," Cloud said sarcastically.

Yuffie stuck her tongue out at Cloud who was changing back. "Let's just go back," Tidus said. So maybe he wasn't special all the time.

So, taking Tidus' well thought out advice, we went back to town.

**POV**

* * *

"Soooooo, where exactly is this place?" Sora looked around at the empty buildings around us and shuddered. "Yuffie was right. This place _is_ creepy."

Yuffie turned and grinned triumphantly at me. "See! I'm not the only one creeped out by this place." She then smothered Sora in a hug.

"What an accomplishment Yuffie," Squall said next to me. "You've lowered yourself to Sora's mentality."

Dropping Sora, Yuffie glared at Squall and then turned around a huff to keep walking. "Come on _children_," Cid said, chewing on his cigarette. "Let's all get along and concentrate on what we're doing here." We fell into relative silence, though Yuffie refused to look back at us and Sora was sulking next to Riku who was whispering something to him.

I looked up at the buildings surrounding us, realizing that I had never been to this part of the town before. It was a really old, abandoned industrial district. Perfect for murderers and rapists and other evil things. Like Heartless. Guess we should have checked this area first, considering the gloomy and creepy atmosphere that attracted such scum. But missing people were usually found running around in the forest having gotten lost or something like that. But we'd only found Heartless in the forest and they had made matters a little more complicated.

From what Cid had told us, one of the people in town had seen some black shapes running out of this area. Most likely Heartless, but we weren't telling anyone what had happened until we actually knew that the Heartless were in the town. Everyone was pretty freaked out as it was, since people were missing and hadn't shown up.

"That's the building up there," Tifa spoke softly and pointed at a building that looked just as dingy and broken down as all the other buildings. We didn't question her, since it had been Tifa and Yuna who had found out where this building was. "There's a big door on the side that the guy said he saw them come out of." Cid stopped and motioned for the rest of us to follow suit.

"Alright," Cid began, "I don't think I have to tell you guys to be ready for anything. We have an idea of what's in there already. But don't get bitten, at all costs. We don't know what we're dealin' with in that respect." Squall's little encounter with death had obviously cycled among us and everyone was concerned. Except… "Except for Cloud and Leon. You guys can get bitten as much as you want."

"Thanks Cid," I growled sarcastically. "Your concern is touching."

Cid grinned and shrugged, holding up his hands, palm up. "I do what I can."

We started walking again, following Tifa's lead. Once we were within one hundred feet of the building, we stopped again for another pep talk. I wondered why they didn't just tell us everything at once, but I hoped that there was some kind of method to their madness that I just didn't understand. "Leon and Cloud, you guys go in first." Oh sure, we're the sacrificial lambs. "The rest of us will follow if everything is quiet inside. You'll have to come back out and tell us if it is. But," she continued seriously, "If there is trouble we're going to have to leave it to you."

We'd be alone for obvious reasons, but Tifa still looked frustrated for a moment. Before anyone else could fill in the vacuum of silence, Tifa continued talking. "If you get overwhelmed – and I hope you don't – we'll jump in and do what we can. Don't be afraid to ask for help though." Tifa emphasized those words and stared at us meaningfully.

Sure, me and Squall had big egos and didn't know when to ask for help… Wait, that's right, we don't know when to ask for help. I guess we'd have to sacrifice pride and ego this time if things totally went to hell. But hopefully that wouldn't happen.

"Yeah, if you die then we're all kind of screwed," Cid said seriously. Thanks, it's nice to know we're loved and needed. If only for grunt work and such.

Sora stepped forward slightly and said glumly, "If Leon and Cloud are doing everything, then why are we here?"

"For backup and to take of anything else that might be inside that Leon and Cloud don't normally deal with." Riku supplied this answer quickly so that none of us had the opportunity to make Sora look stupid. Damn, take all the fun out of life why don't ya?

Cid nodded to me and Squall and we walked forward towards the building. Obviously not waltzing down the street like we were going to Grandma's or something, but there wasn't much cover to use. So we stuck to the sides of the buildings until we got to an – obviously – deserted street that we darted across and then we were standing up against the wall of the building. Squall took the lead from there and drew his Gunblade and nudged the closed door with his boot. It didn't move so he put his hand on the door handle and I pulled out my Buster sword.

He turned the handle slowly, and pushed the door slowly but it still made noise. I winced slightly but Squall grew all the more determined and I saw his knuckles whiten as he tightened his grip on the door. It screeched and then squeaked loudly one last time before it was fully open. Squall stood there for a moment, alert to everything, before stepping into the dark building.

And when I say dark, I mean really dark. The opening of the door cut a sharp outline into the blackness of the room. Looking ahead, even my enhanced night vision had a hard time distinguishing between things. We had seen windows from the outside, so it shouldn't be this dark. Unless someone had purposely covered up the windows.

"Is there a light switch somewhere?" My voice came out as barely a whisper, but it sounded loud. Squall didn't answer, but swept his Gunblade into the darkness ahead of him before stepping into it. I guess he was going to go find out.

With my own sword, I swept in front of me and stepped into the shadows. In a big place like this, you'd think that they'd have the light switch right next to the door so employees wouldn't have to wander around looking for one. Glancing up, I confirmed that there were indeed lights that looked like they had light bulbs in them. That was a plus, as long as the bulbs weren't burned out.

Stepping towards a wall, I felt around for a light switch or a box of switches or anything really. But my wall was smooth except for a bunch of shelves with tools on them. As I walked around them, I heard something snap and the lights blazed on overhead.

"Ahhh, my eyes, they burn!" I covered my eyes with my arm and then squinted out from underneath it at Squall's approaching feet. Slowly lowering my arm, I scowled at him.

"Please, it's not that bad Cloud." Squall regarded me with an amused expression.

"You were prepared for the bright lights, I was not. You could have warned me." I turned around, now that my eyes were used to the light and saw…

Nothing. Just a big empty room that had several doors leading off into what were probably other rooms. And the room that we were in was considerably smaller than I had thought it would be.

"This is probably just a type of reception room. Or was, before it was abandoned." Squall looked around again.

"Should we check out the other rooms or get the others?" There were various implications for each one of those choices but getting the others would probably be the best. Get them in here where we were less likely to be surprised.

"Get the others," Squall nodded. He turned and strode out of the building, his Gunblade casually leaning on his shoulder. While he went to get everyone, I wandered around in the small room looking for anything weird or out of place. But everything seemed to be in order. Whatever this building had been before, there wasn't much evidence as to what it had been. Pretty much everything was gone – or had never been there in the first place – except for a couple of standing shelves and some tools on the shelves. I wondered if anyone knew what this building had been.

I heard the tramp of everyone's feet outside and turned around to face the door as they came in.

"It's not that big," Yuna commented quietly. As everyone stood around, the room suddenly did seem a lot smaller. It wasn't really that small of a room, but fitting nine people into the room was starting to push it.

Yuffie was jumping up and down and asking excitedly, "What room are we going into first?" She dragged out the syllables of most of the words in an irritating yet cute kind of way.

"Leon, Sora, Riku, that room," Cid pointed to the door on the far side. "Cloud, Tidus and Tifa, that room," he pointed to the door on the other side of the room. "Yuffie, Yuna and I will take that one." He pointed at the last door. Without discussion we went off to our designated rooms. Believe me, I wasn't thrilled about being separated from Squall, but at least I was with Tifa. And I don't think Tidus had said much since Squall had told him we were gay, so, that was another plus.

The room we went into was dark like the other one had been originally. Only difference was that the light switch to this room was much easier to find. Flicking it on, we saw…nothing. Or, at least nothing of interest. Rows of immaculate, shiny metal tables and metal boxes underneath them went down the full length and width of the room which was probably about twice the size of the room we had just been in. Maybe this place had been some kind of hospital before? Though, it was odd how the tables were so clean when everything else seemed to be so old.

From one of the other rooms, someone screamed and we looked at one another. The scream was still echoing off all of the emptiness in this place but there weren't any sounds of fighting. "Should we go?" Tidus looked from the open door to Tifa.

Tifa nodded, saying, "Yeah, I think so. Just to make sure everything's okay. There isn't much in here anyway." I figured I'd point out the cleanliness of this particular room later, after we figured out who had been screaming.

Coming out of the room, we saw Cid and Riku attempting to quiet Yuffie who was freaking out. Squall was kneeling in front of a crying Yuna and Sora looked as though he was about to flip out and cry as well. Without waiting another second, Tidus took off and went to Yuna, embracing her and asking her what was wrong. Squall grabbed Sora by the shoulders and started to talk to him.

Looking at Tifa, who shrugged, we approached the chaotic group. "Yuffie! Calm the hell down!" Cid was shouting at Yuffie while Riku tried to grab her hand. Seeing as Yuna was quite calm and everyone seemed to be doing something besides me, I went to go and help with Yuffie.

"Yuffie," I said, standing a little ways away from her frantic jumping and shouting. "Come on, stop." She looked at me before leaping at me, throwing her arms around my neck and bursting into sobs. Holding her I looked to Cid for an explanation.

Cid shook his head and said quietly, "You'd have to see it to believe it."

As Yuffie quieted, I gave her a hard hug before saying to Cid, "All right, let's go."

* * *

Yay! Cliffhanger! Hehe, alright, I promise I'll work real hard to get the next chapter up ASAP as time/school/everything else provides for. Woooooooooo.

-Todpirscher


	3. Chapter 3

Okay okay okay, I apologize for the lack of updating. –hides- School is crazy, and I might be testing for my black belt in June. Mucho things to do. But I'm working on this as much as I can. This whole cough-tenpagechapter-cough was done in a day, just for all my loyal readers. Don't you all feel special? . Mainly just a fluffy, plot line developing chapter to get my stagnant creativity alive again. Alright, enough of me talking.

* * *

Releasing Yuffie, whose sobs had subsided into sniffles and hiccups, I stepped towards Cid. "Let's go." I heard Riku talking softly to Yuffie but didn't really pay attention to what they were saying. Cid led me towards the door he had been in and stopped, looking over my shoulder. Turning around, I saw Squall striding towards us. But when he got there, Cid still paused, his cigarette hanging limply from his mouth, seemingly forgotten.

Finally, he shook his head and looked at us. "It ain't pretty in there. Not at all." Cid took a deep breath and stepped to the door, pushing it slowly open. Way to extend the drama. Or maybe he just didn't want to go back into the room. What had everyone so spooked?

Squall followed Cid into the room before me and I was forced to squeeze past the two of them because they stopped just in the doorway. What I saw made me wish that I hadn't been able to squeeze through, that I hadn't come in at all. Yuna's tears and Yuffie's exclamations all made sense now. This room was far worse than anything I had ever seen before.

It resembled the room I had been in with Tifa and Tidus. The same multitude of shiny tables and boxes at the ends of them. Except, these tables weren't clean. And the tables and boxes weren't the only inanimate objects in the room.

Squall said softly, "How many are there?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cid shake his head and adjust his goggles on his forehead. "At least fifteen who are…" He paused and grimaced. "Dead. Five or so who still have color and just seem to be asleep. But, not all of them are from here. Three of the sleeping one's are. But the dead one's…" Cid trailed off and gazed off at the people in the room.

Deathly white and pale, their skin sunken, and limp, they looked like bags of skin and bones, literally. Connected to them were what looked like IVs, except the tubes going into the people were dry. The bags were filled with dark red blood which was leaking down into big white jugs next to the tables. Some of the bags were empty, and a couple of bodies looked as if they had been there at least a couple of weeks.

"And the people who are still alive or sleeping?" I walked between the tables, the stench of death assailing my nose and making me gag. Fighting the urge to throw up, I touched the arm of one of the bodies and it disintegrated into a fine white dust. Holy shit, was my first thought. Ooops, was the second. The fact that the person didn't need his arm anymore didn't make it any better that I'd just destroyed it.

"Two of them were hooked up to these machines but, I took them off," Cid replied. He was standing over one of the sleeping figures and I went over to see who it was.

"Is that her?" I was, of course, referring to his lady friend, whose name I still did not know. Cid nodded and touched her hair gently before seeming to remember where he was and what we were doing.

He cleared his throat and Squall looked up from where he had been examining one of the blood taking machines. "We're going to get these five out now. And the rest we'll just have to leave for now." I didn't mention that'd they probably disintegrate into dust if we tried to move them. That was the least of our problems at this moment anyway. Cid picked up the woman that he had been standing over, and I went to pick up a man who had a scar resembling Squall's. His white shirt had a weird red cross on it, and he looked nothing like Squall except for the scar.

"Hey Squall, this guy has a scar like yours." Looking over at him lifting another unconscious man off of a table, I saw him stiffen and pause. Uh-oh. Did Squall know this person? My eyes traveled to the scar slanting between the closed eyes and decided that the odds were probably a million to one that two people would have mirror image scars like that and _not_ know one another. Then again, was our luck so bad that the guy had to be an enemy of Squall's?

Fine, stupid question considering our past problems. We seriously needed some luck materia. Unfortunately, Yuffie was no longer a materia "hunter" and there just so happened to be no materia in this world. Hence, Yuffie's lack of a job and our lack of luck.

"Are you sure?" Squall's voice was tight as he walked over with the man slung over his shoulders, feet dragging on the floor.

From the doorway Cid said obnoxiously, "What's holdin' you guys up? Let's get goin'!" His woman was cradled in his arms, her head lying on his chest. It looked almost like he was a knight rescuing her from a dreaded step mother or a tower. Except, this wasn't a fairy tale, and Squall's sharp intake of breath made me turn to look at him.

"Seifer." His face darkened and he scowled. "It does not matter now. Just get him out of here." He had answered my unasked question for the moment, but my curiosity was piqued, and you could be sure I would be asking him again later.

"Let's go! Before something decides to drop in on us," Cid growled again.

Hoisting Seifer up over my shoulders, I heard Cid yelling to Riku and Sora to get the other two people so we could get out of here. I looked at the head leaning on my shoulder, studying it, and then turned to look at the doorway that Riku and Sora were coming through.

Questions buzzed around in my head as I wondered who exactly Seifer was.

And why Squall seemed to dislike him so much.

**POV

* * *

**

"Sooooooooooo…" I looked over the bed of one of the sleeping women at Cloud who was staring down at Seifer. "Who is this guy?" Sighing, I threw a blanket over the woman I was kneeling next to and stood up.

It had been a vain hope to think I could get out of here before Cloud would again ask his questions. Once he latched onto something, it was difficult to divert his attention from it.

I looked at the other four people, sleeping peacefully in their beds. Yuna had confirmed that they were just sleeping, a forced sleep, but something they would come out of in a few hours, or possibly a few days. The only person who I wished would never wake up was Seifer. A shitload of problems would undoubtedly come with that, and I didn't particularly care to deal with them. According to my standards, things had been going fine. Up until he showed up.

Cloud was still looking at me expectantly with those knowing blue eyes. Walking around the beds I came to stand next to him and looked down at Seifer who was sleeping quietly. Even in his sleep he looked kind of angry. Or maybe it was just me. Though, it wasn't as if my hatred of him wasn't justified. Sure, one could argue that maybe Seifer had changed; maybe he was a nice guy now. But no one who had known Seifer, known him the way I know him, would ever say something like that. It was inconceivable that Seifer would have ever changed. Hell, after all that had happened I wouldn't have forgiven him even if he had changed.

"Come on," I said to Cloud and started to walk out of the infirmary. "We'll talk somewhere else." Cloud let the door close behind us and I leaned against the wall, facing him. I closed my eyes for a moment as Cloud leaned on the wall opposite me, mirroring me, with his arms crossed over his chest. The only difference was, he left his legs straight and I had crossed my right ankle over my left.

Gathering my thoughts, I tried to articulate in my mind what I was going to say before I was going to say it. That would make everything easier, right? Well, it should have but it really didn't.

"That's Seifer," I said to start off with. I could already hear Cloud's sarcastic, "I knew that already" reply coming up. But as I waited for it, I realized it wasn't coming. Opening my eyes I simply saw Cloud staring at me expectantly. That fact that he didn't reply sarcastically threw me a bit, before I realized that Cloud was really trying to understand what I felt about Seifer and he wasn't looking for an excuse to be a smart ass.

"I knew him when we were kids. A long time ago." Alright, maybe not that long ago, but it sure as hell seemed like a long time ago. At one point I hadn't even known that we'd grown up together. The only thing I did learn from the memories I had regained was that Seifer had been the same bastard when he was younger as when he was older. "We never got along well, always fighting and stuff. And then things got really ugly between us." I sighed and felt the sudden need to walk somewhere, anywhere, as long as it took me away from Seifer and his presence.

Pushing off the wall, I started to walk and Cloud followed, walking next to me as best he could in the narrow hallway. "He did some crazy stuff, and killed a lot of innocent people, or helped to carry out orders to kill people." My feet had led me and Cloud out of the building and into the fresh air. A wind kicked up, gusting between the buildings and blowing my hair in front of my face. Brushing it away, I continued. "I never thought I'd have to see him again."

Cloud and I walked along in silence, and he seemed to be happy with my vague recollection of events. Not even realizing it, we had walked to the sparring area and I stopped, surprised. "Wanna go a round?" Cloud grinned at me, his fingers twitching as if he were already holding his Buster Sword in his hand.

With a shrug, I said "Sure" and followed him down to the hard packed circle of dirt. We picked up our swords and Cloud paused.

"One question first." I took off my leather jacket and looked at him. "Why do you and him have almost the exact same scars?"

I scowled slightly, but answered anyway. None of this was Cloud's fault. "We were training and neither of us was very good at keeping things "sane". So, things obviously got a bit out of hand." A little more than a bit of an understatement, but all well.

Cloud nodded, thankfully understanding my indistinct terminology. Basically I was saying that me and Seifer were too stubborn to know when to quit and we messed ourselves up pretty bad.

Standing in the middle of the circle of dirt, I faced Cloud who was standing across from me. His use of the Buster sword was still amazing to me. I had tried to use that monstrous thing, but I wasn't able to use its weight as efficiently as Cloud could. The Gunblade had made me too used to something light and fluid. Though, when Cloud used his sword it looked as though he was wielding something as light and fluid as a Gunblade.

As if an unspoken word had passed between us, our battle began with Cloud stepping in and swiping at my legs with his sword. Stepping back I let his sword sweep past me and momentum carried him with it. As Cloud spun around, I angled a strike at his shoulders. Just in time, he brought the edge of his sword up to block. Pushing up and away, Cloud managed to get out from underneath my blade and stood off again, watching.

We had been sparring a lot together, but no matter how good either us was, we always wound up at a draw. Parrying a blow at my thigh, I flicked my wrist and stepped to the side while bringing my sword up to cut his thigh. Cloud stepped backwards and my sword cut nothing but air. With a grunt, Cloud pushed the Buster sword into my Gunblade and managed to slide it underneath my blade, aiming at my belly.

Placing my palm on the flat side of my sword, I pressed down hard on the Buster sword and the edge dipped, going right between my legs. "Holy shit."

"That would have been upsetting for both of us," Cloud smirked at me. I jumped backwards as Cloud pulled his sword out of the dirt. "You should be more careful."

Glaring at Cloud, I swung my sword at my side in a circle, loosening my wrist and getting my bearings back. If I had a choice, I'd prefer to never be in a position like that again. That was an area of my body that nobody messed with, especially not with sharp objects.

Leaping back in, Cloud blocked my thrust to his chest downwards. But I had put myself in a position right next to him, so I sat on his hip slightly and brought my leg up to kick his leg out from under him. With a shocked look, Cloud went down and hit the dirt hard enough to knock the breath from him. I brought my sword back to place at his neck, but he had already rolled over and was getting up on his knees. He stayed there, kneeling and watching me and I wondered what he was thinking about, or what he was going to do.

Stepping towards him, I started to circle in tightening concentric circles. Cloud still didn't move. Coming up on his left side, I was so close I could see the sweat beading on his forehead. Damn, we'd probably been out for more than a half an hour and it felt like five minutes.

Deciding enough was enough, I dived in, swinging my sword the short distance to his neck. And Cloud ducked. He ducked. Damnit, why hadn't I seen that coming? As I saw his sword coming up to my neck, I fought the momentum I had thrown into that swing and dragged it back to Cloud.

Time seemed to stand still in those few seconds where it was unsure if Cloud would actually beat me. Shifting slightly, my sword touched his neck just as his sword touched mine. Cloud grinned up at me, blue eyes laughing.

"What are you so happy about? It was a draw." Cloud kicked out my legs and had me pinned to the ground before I even knew what the hell was happening.

Straddling my hips, he leaned down and placed his elbows on my shoulders and his arms over my neck, effectively holding me down. "I think I have every reason in the world to be happy." His eyes softened as he dipped his head down and released my neck, pressing his lips roughly to mine. At a touch from my tongue his lips parted and my tongue slid into his warmth. Running over his teeth and tongue, I bit gently on his lip and he pulled away, eyes dancing.

Despite his having his elbows in my shoulders – which was quite painful I might add – I managed to reach up and cup my hands around his face and pull him back down to meet my lips with his. Threading my fingers through his blonde hair, I suddenly realized that we dirty and sweaty and kissing in the middle of the sparring arena.

Yes, you may be wondering how I could have forgotten where we were but you get your hands on Cloud and let's see how well your mind functions. Not that I'd let you get your hands on him…

"Mmmm, Cloud," I mumbled before I was able to disengage my mouth from his.

"What?" He stared down at me, and then growled when I sat up and he was forced off of me to the ground next to me.

Cloud obviously wasn't paying too much attention to his surroundings either. "Let's go back home, first." He blinked, uncomprehending for a moment, and then he nodded, recognition coming into his face.

"Okay," he said and jumped up. "Let's go."

**POV

* * *

**

Squall pressed me up against the wall, his hands on my hips and his mouth on my mine. The temperature difference between his fiery skin and the cold wall was shocking and I gasped into his mouth. His tongue slid into my open mouth and I gladly accepted it. As we explored the already known wonders of one another's mouths, my hands fumbled with the three belts on his pants. The buckles were all on his front, or near there, and that area was currently pressed up against mine. I pushed slightly with my hips, and it was painfully difficult to draw away so my hands could get at the buckles and zippers and all that other frivolous clothing stuff.

My pants were already down around my knees, as cloth came off fairly easily, and Squall was sliding his hands up my sides, leaving a tingling sensation wherever they touched. With each buckle undone, the belt clattered to the floor. Reaching for the zipper of his leather pants, my pants finally managed to slide over my knees and to the floor where I slowly managed to step out of them without somehow getting caught in them and falling. Squall's hands tangled in my hair and he released my mouth long enough to kiss my collar bone. His breath fluttered over my neck and I leaned my head back, exposing my neck to him and tried to push his pants down. As usual, the leather was sticking his skin, still sweaty from our sparring.

He nipped at my neck and I growled slightly at the starburst of pain, jerking down on his pants and inadvertently, his boxers at the same time. No fair, I still had mine on. They fell to the floor with a muffled kind of sound and Squall pressed his hips and his length against me. Taking in a sharp breath, I pushed away from the cold wall and into Squall's heat, towards the bed. His hands had traveled down to my sides again, fingers digging into the muscles along my back, before going to slide my boxers down my legs.

He fell backwards onto the bed and I rode him down, catching his mouth and kissing fiercely. Squall's arms wrapped around me, holding me tightly to his burning skin, the overpowering smell of leather and sweat and forest permeated everything. That intoxicating smell that drowned out everything else but him, and me, and this moment. Pressing my hips into his, Squall reciprocated the movement and I brushed his sweaty hair away from his forehead, though I never left his lips.

We were one.

* * *

I was startled when the first thing I woke up to was bright sunshine. Not only had Squall and I slept late – really late – but no one was pounding on the door screaming at us to wake up. Squall was stroking my hair, and I kissed his chest before looking up at him. "How long have you been awake?"

Slinging one of my legs over his beneath the sheets, I twisted so that my chin rested on chest and I was looking up at him. "A while," was his simple reply.

"No one came looking for his?" He shook his head. Craning my neck, my teeth snapped at the hand stroking my head, and he quickly retracted his hand to place it behind his head with the other one. It was amazing how effortlessly he could make himself look like a Greek god as the sunlight splayed splotches of golden light overly his softly tanned skin. God he was gorgeous.

His eyes slid closed and I was left looking at his calm, passive face. "Where do you think everyone is?"

Squall shrugged his elbows. "Probably at breakfast. They'll be up sooner or later looking for us." He opened his eyes and looked at me. "You might want to take a shower."

I looked at him indignantly. "You should take one too." I was sure a wicked glint had come into my eyes because Squall arched an eyebrow at me. Grinning at him, I waited for him to answer my unspoken question because there was no doubt in my mind that he already knew what it was.

"Fine," he rolled his eyes and sat up, pushing me off of him.

"As if you don't wanna," I retorted. Sliding off the bed, I walked to the bathroom, fully awake for once. It wasn't that we didn't like the way we smelled; I couldn't get enough of the way Squall smelled. Other people just didn't seem to appreciate those smells like we did. And besides, it was odd to suddenly stop taking showers after years of growing up with them. Squall also said that just because we were half wolf didn't mean that we had to act entirely like them. Sometimes he was no fun _at all_.

Turning the shower on, I let it run for a while before looking up to call for Squall. But he was already in the doorway, watching me. "What?"

"Nothing," was his nonchalant reply. Though there was a shadow of a smile on his face before his calm air settled over him again.

"Okay." I shrugged, deciding it wasn't worth it to pursue something so trivial and stood, stretching my arms over my head. I closed my eyes, listening to my shoulders crack as I stretched. An arm slid around my waist and I was drawn into Squall's warm skin. My arms settled comfortably around his neck and he kissed me gently. Pulling away, he reached up a hand to tilt my head to the side to rub a thumb over my neck. I scowled at him, realizing that there must be a bruise there from last night.

Squall wrapped both arms around my waist and said quietly at my neck, "Don't tell me you don't love it."

Even if I _had_ wanted to contest what I loved and did not love about this relationship, I did not get a chance to. His mouth was already on mine again in another kiss.

* * *

"Cloud!" I cringed as I heard Cid's shout from across the eating hall. He had a habit of blaming everything on me whenever Squall and I were late anywhere. Geez, not _everything_ was my fault. Some of it could be blamed on me, but not all of it.

Looking up, I was surprised to not see anger, but excitement. Excitement? Now I was really thrown for a loop. What could Cid possibly have done to be excited about seeing me?

"Leon," Cid nodded to Squall who was sitting next to me, but then directed his full and radiant attention towards me.

"Cid," I said slowly. "You're scaring me." The old man usually got very excited over space stuff and women. And his woman was upstairs in the infirmary still sleeping to my knowledge. Not that her having woken up would have anything to do with me. And I had nothing to do with space travel or other space related things.

Cid rolled his eyes. "Stop being sucha pansy Cloud." He paused, considering what he'd just said. "Uh, stop being sucha wimp Cloud. I've got something out in the garage that I think you'll like."

He had something for me? This I had to see.

Scoffing down the rest of my breakfast faster than was probably humanly possible, I turned Squall's head to me and kissed him briefly on the lips. "See ya later, okay?" He nodded and I jumped out of my seat to stand next to Cid, waiting for him to go.

"I'm still not used to seeing that," Cid muttered with a shake of his head. I merely shrugged. What was there to say? Couldn't say "Sorry" because there was nothing to be sorry about. "Anyway, I'm sure you'll like this."

We walked in silence to the garage, though I was practically leaping out of my skin to find out what the hell Cid had for me. Cid pushed the door to the garage open with a creak and flicked the lights on. The lights snapped on revealing Cid's work station and what he was so excited about.

A motorcycle.

My mouth dropped slightly before I was able to regain my composure. "Cid, this is awesome." I couldn't help but feel giddy as I stepped towards the black bike and placed my hands on the shiny, black metal. It was as if I could feel the speed and the wind and the adrenaline rush already.

"A nice body isn't all she has." Bikes were a lot like women to men, hence Cid's terminology. But damn, she _did_ have a nice body. Cid swung a leg over the seat and said, "Step back a moment." I did, even though I was reluctant to. Cid pushed a button on one of the handles and the sides knifed out with the sharp sound of a sword being drawn. "Armor," Cid said, waving a hand over the front. "And," he reached forward slightly and pulled a blade out of one of the armor pieces that had snapped out. "Attachments, for the Buster sword."

I felt like a kid in a toy store who had just been given the best and biggest toy that all the other little boys wanted. Cid stepped off and I got on, reveling in the feel of the bike under me. "Thanks Cid."

"Oh, don't thank me yet." Cid grinned wickedly at me. "You have to do something for me first." I ran my fingers over the front of the bike before pressing the button to make the armor return back into the bike.

Carefully, I said, "What's that?"

"I want you to go get Vincent."

I blinked, unsure I had heard him correctly. "Get Vincent?" Cid nodded. "Why?"

Cid sighed and chewed on his cigarette for a few moments before choosing to respond. "Because we're dealing with some pretty crazy shit here and I'd feel better having someone with Vincent's powers around." Cid made a face and shrugged. "You know what I mean."

I nodded, knowing full well what he meant. "When do I leave?"

"Today, if possible."

"We don't even know where Vincent is." Thing was, Vincent came and went as he pleased, literally like the wind. And I mean that. None of us were really sure how it worked, and Vincent was too edgy about his inner demons to explain them to us.

Cid sighed. "I know. That's why I'm sending you because you seem to have a knack for finding him. Or, at least he seems to find you when you need him." True enough.

"All right, I'll go and pack some stuff."

* * *

Yeeeeeah, I know Vincent isn't in KH or KH II, but I like him and he fits into the storyline. All the better because now no one really knows what he does. Hehe. As to Seifer, his and Squall's storylines are coming out of FFVIII. To my knowledge, they're not different in KHII, except Seifer is younger. And gangsta. Which oddly suits him. And I finally figured out where they're all living. It's kind of like Traverse Town but on a more modern day scale, and they're living in that hotel kind of thing, except it's kind of just for them. If any of that makes sense. 


	4. Chapter 4

I fixed this one. So, you can go read the conversation again if you want...

Yay! Update! One of my reviewers asked me not to make a VincentxCid pairing. Well, to calm fears, I can't imagine Cid gay or Vincent much, for that matter. I _was_ going to pair Vincent with Tifa but it was like…No. That just…doesn't work. At all. Something my develop later. Any, Cid has his "lady friend". And FFVII players might recognize her name…

* * *

Cloud hadn't left me with any guarantees that he'd be back soon, but I wasn't overly worried. I had some general idea of where he'd gone, and I also knew that he wouldn't be gone forever. Whenever he got back, he got back. So for the time being I would have to find things to occupy myself with. And it wasn't as if there was a shortage of things to do around here.

Except now, of course. Sitting with Sora in the infirmary and watching the sleeping people was not on my Top Ten List of most exciting things to do. Hell, it wouldn't even have been on my Top One Hundred List, but there wasn't anything I could do about it right now.

Sitting as far across the room from Seifer as was humanly possible, I watched Sora watching a bird on the window. Sora seemed absolutely fascinated by the little brown bird as it hopped around on the windowsill, poking at the wood. Oh how small minds are amused by the simplest of things. When the bird flew away, Sora seemed slightly disappointed. "Sooooooo," he began. No, bird, please come back. Damn it, don't leave me with Sora. "What do you think happened to them?" He looked at the sleeping people.

I shrugged. "Why do you think I'd know?" Everyone seemed to think that if Cid didn't know something, than I would know it. If only things worked like that.

Sora looked away and down at his feet, before looking back up at me. "Well, because you seem to know everything." Exactly what I was saying. He shrugged and then grinned mischievously. "But I guess you can't be perfect all the time." The intended nasty remark wasn't as bad as Sora could have hoped. I merely made an unamused face at the brunette who then resumed looking at Seifer.

"I guess you don't know when they'll wake up either then." It wasn't a question; it was a statement. Or I guess a rhetorical question. I didn't even bother answering it either way.

The door eased open and Tifa poked her head inside. "Hey Leon, come here a minute?" Pushing myself out of the chair, I was glad to get away from Sora from the moment. Anti-social? Not really, he just liked to talk a little more than I did. I mean, I was fine with Riku. He was quieter.

Once out in the hallway, Tifa crossed her arms in front of her chest and said, "Since Cloud isn't here, we need someone else to help us track the Heartless and you are the only one qualified to do it." Her lips quirked up in a smile. "Want to come now?"

I silently thanked Tifa for saving me. But I said, "So now I'm just a second rate trained tracker?" She opened her mouth to argue but then seemed to have caught the fact that I wasn't being serious. Instead she shook her head.

"Yep, that's exactly what you are. Now get your ass downstairs to Cid. I have to take over for you with Sora."

Thank you so much Tifa.

* * *

In a way, I could understand why Cloud loved to track so much. It was challenging. But at the same time, it could be downright boring. Like it was now. There was absolutely no trace of any Heartless in town or on the outskirts of the town.

"What if they just left?" I heard Tidus ask Cid that and I looked over my shoulder, a bit awkwardly, at them following me before putting my nose back on the ground. After Cloud had left, Cid, Riku, Tidus and I had gone back to the deserted building to bring back some more of those people. But when we got there, nothing was left. Not one person or piece of equipment attached to them was there. Everything had been left spotlessly clean as if no one had been there in the first place.

Cid grunted and said, "I doubt they'd just up and leave like that." His unspoken sentence hung in the air between us like a guillotine waiting to come down. The truth was, none of us knew what the Heartless would have done. What we were all worried about though, was why they had taken those people in the first place. What need did they have for blood?

I paused, looking at a set of footprints in the ground. I'd almost passed over them because they were just faintly there in the dirt, as though the wearer had been light as a feather. But, judging by the size of them, the wearer was at least my size if not bigger. Even stranger, was that the prints had no smell. Just the smell of the boots, which was leather. Looking up, I tried to see if there were more prints farther ahead but realized it would be impossible to see an imprint that light.

Trotting forward, I saw that there were more prints, just as light and indistinct as the first ones had been. I could hear Cid and Tidus still talking behind me, and by the sounds of it, I didn't think they noticed the footprints on the ground. That was why I was a tracker and they weren't.

I slowly followed the footprints until they abruptly stopped. Just stopped, right there in the middle of the path they had been traveling on. With a small growl, I circled outwards, looking for some sign that the person had left the path and climbed up a tree or something. But there was nothing, absolutely nothing. Not even a smell to go by. Slightly frustrated, I stopped and changed back into a human. Just as I was finishing, Tidus and Cid caught up with me.

Cid paused and stared at me for a moment. What? Never seen a shape shifter before? Oh, right, he hasn't. Tidus had seen Cloud shift once before, so I don't think it bothered him as much.

"What did you find?" Cid had finally composed himself enough to speak and I was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that I had no clothing on. Cloud might be comfortable wandering around naked, but I wasn't yet.

At any rate, I had to forget about that for the moment. "I found some weird footprints," and I gestured to the ground at their feet. "Weird because of their size and shallow imprint and because they don't have a scent to them." I watched Cid kneel down to look more closely at the footprint. Tidus looked up at me.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that we have someone my size was somehow managed to barely touch the ground and have absolutely no smell. That's just damn unnatural." Tidus nodded and didn't say anything. "The prints also just disappear. There's nothing else around here." Frustration settled on me like a heavy blanket.

Cid stood up and looked around. "There's no trace of the person?" I shook my head and Cid muttered, "If this even was a person…"

"Another werewolf?" I couldn't help but notice the nervous edge to Tidus' voice.

Again I shook my head. "If it had been there would have been some sign or smell of where they'd gone." Cid sighed.

"Let's head back. There's nothing else we can do right now and it's getting dark." I nodded and crouched, willing my body to shift into a wolf, avoiding the stares Tidus and Cid directed at me. It was hard not to be amused by their disbelief and amazement. It wasn't really _that_ amazing.

Finished I gave myself a good shake and then started to head back home.

* * *

"Leon!" I looked down the hallway and saw Yuffie bounding towards me. "They're awake!" It took me a moment to register who the hell she was talking about. The people in the infirmary. Which mean Seifer was awake too. "I'm going to go and tell Cid that _Shera's_ awake." She emphasized the name and I guessed that was the name of the woman he had rescued. Yuffie was already past me and down the hall before I could ask her about anything else that was going on.

My thought process was torn between whether I wanted to see Seifer or just ignore him for as long as possible.

Curiosity won out in the end as I found myself making my way towards the infirmary. As much as I hated Seifer, I still wanted to know why the hell he was here and when he would be leaving.

As I approached the infirmary, I could hear people shouting; apparently Seifer wasn't happy to be here. Good, maybe then he'd leave sooner. Pushing the door open, I had to duck quickly as a vase shot through the space where my head had been to crash into the opposite wall and shatter. "Calm the hell down!" Riku's voice was starting to raise as he shouted at…someone who…wasn't Seifer. Instead it was a woman with short gray hair and an eye path… She was here too? How had a missed her before? Because I was too involved with Seifer. I answered my own question and grimaced.

"RAIJIN! WHERE!" Typical, shouting, monosyllabic Fuijin. I scanned the room and saw that everyone else was still in bed watching Fuijin's little tirade. Everyone but Seifer who was watching Fuijin like he could care less about her problems. Which were technically his because Raijin was technically his friend. Or, at least a member of his disciplinary committee. Maybe they didn't count as friends. Just cronies.

Seifer looked from Fuijin to me, probably because the door had just opened. A cocky grin filled his face as he started to make his way around the fuming Fuijin to me. Noooooo, go away. Go back to Fuijin. And then I realized a possibility for further delaying meeting Seifer.

Stepping next to Riku I said loudly, "Fuijin!" She looked at me for a moment as if she couldn't remember who I was and how I knew her name. Then comprehension hit.

"SQUALL!" Yes, as if I didn't already know who I was. Or maybe she was just saying it to make sure I wouldn't disappear. Whatever the reason was, it didn't really matter.

Riku looked at me as if you say, "You know this psycho?" Yeah, and the other psycho over there as well. However, at the moment Fuijin seemed to be the most psychotic. "It's Leon now, Fuijin. Calm down, we'll find out what happened to Raijin. Just go sit down somewhere." I waved my hand at her and for a moment it looked as if she was about to try and drop kick my ass.

But then she sighed and said – well shouted actually – "OKAY!", and went to go and sit down on her bed. Alright, one problem down, one to go.

Riku stepped off to the side and I followed, knowing what his question would be even before he opened his mouth. "Yes, she always talks like that." The silver haired boy looked at me in disbelief.

"'Talk' is an understatement. You can't be serious. Why?"

I shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

A hand grabbed my shoulder and I whirled around, Seifer's face so close to mine I was forced to take a step back just to see him clearly. Then I took another step back so that his hand was forced to fall off of my shoulder unless he wanted to be in a very uncomfortable position. "Squall. Long time no see."

I would have preferred that we would never have had to see each other again. Keeping my face straight and emotionless – which, of course, was very hard – I replied, "What are you doing here?"

Seifer shrugged and pulled at his white jacket, smoothing it over himself. As he did it, I noticed that he didn't have his Gunblade with him. "I don't know, I woke up here. And from what I heard him" he pointed at Riku "telling Fuijin, you brought us all here. So I'd like to know why _you_ brought _us_ here."

They very thought of me wanting to bring Siefer and his mindless cronies anywhere was repulsive. The act of rescuing them even more so. And I'm sure Seifer wouldn't enjoy that fact much either. "We had to _rescue _all of you from a warehouse where a lot of people had been killed."

"Well, thanks," Seifer said. I started to open my mouth to shoot back a nasty remark but had to bite my tongue. Completely unexpected and so unlike Seifer.

"Who are you and where is the real Seifer?" Seifer smiled at me, like one might smile at a slow child.

"REAL!" Fuijin's shout cut through the general silence like a knife.

Seifer nodded. "As Fuijin will attest to, I'm the real deal Squall – "

"Leon, to you." I cut him off sharply; if there was anyone I didn't want using my real name it was him.

Seifer gave me a funny look. "Okay then." Again, so unlike Seifer. "Anyway…Leon… You'll have to show me and Fuijin around sometimes. Obviously, once you have the problems in your town all fixed up." The bit of malice mixed into those last words gave me some…hope, I guess the only word for it is, that the real Seifer was still there. Because if he wasn't, then how could I possibly still hate him?

As he turned around, I stared hard at his back as though trying to see through him. It was funny how I suddenly realized how much I had hated him and how suddenly lost I felt without him to hate.

As he sat next to Fuijin, the door eased open and we all turned to see Cid who seemed to have been trying to get in without anyone noticing. "Go innnnnn," Yuffie whined from outside. And then I think she pushed him because he stumbled inside and looked around sheepishly. However, he recovered pretty quickly when he saw Shera looking at him.

"Are you okay?" He went to kneel next to her bed and took her hand in his. Mushy reunions, great. I choose this as my time to exit. As Cid started to talk again, I slipped through the still open door and closed it behind me.

Not only had I not gotten my questions answered, but I had even more questions than before.

"Hey Leon." I turned around to see Tifa jogging slightly to catch up with me. "How'd it go?"

I shrugged. "It could have gone better I think." She was talking about Seifer, or at least that's what I was guessing. It was likely that Cloud had told her what I had told him, but I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it. The more people that Cloud told, the fewer people I had to repeat my story too. "I've gotten more questions than answers."

Tifa and I walked abreast down the hallway. I was hungry and was heading down to eat. Wherever Tifa was going wasn't an issue for me.

It was silent for a little when and then Tifa said, "I found some more Heartless outside of town." She let that statement hang there a moment before saying, "I think I've found another of their hideouts."

My immediate question was, "Another hideout?" The next question was, "Does Cid know?" And the last thing I said was, "Damn it Tifa, you're not supposed to be near any Heartless without me or Cloud."

Tifa scowled so hard that I thought her face might break. "Yes to the first question, no to the second. And screw you Leon, I can take care of myself. Besides, you or Cloud weren't around. What was I supposed to do, let them run off to attack someone else?" I didn't answer her question, because my answer was "Yes" and she wouldn't have liked that answer. The possibility of them finding anyone else, when everyone _else_ was afraid to leave their houses, much less the town, was slim to none. But of course, there was no telling Tifa that. "As to Cid knowing," she said to change the subject. "He's enamored of Shera right now and won't hear anything else." Okay then, so come report to me. Fine, but I don't know what she expects me to do.

"Cid wants to wait for Cloud and Vincent to get back first, before we do anything else with the Heartless." We entered the cafeteria and Tifa stopped.

"But the Heartless could be gone by then. We don't have any idea when those two will be back!" She clenched her fists at her sides as if preparing for a fist fight.

Don't get me wrong but, I wouldn't want to ever fight Tifa in hand to hand combat. That is some _scary_ stuff right there.

Sighing, I was about to explain to Tifa what Cid's answer would be when a sharp wind gusted around us. Wait, wind inside? "Well speak of the devil," Tifa said, her face splitting into a grin and her fists relaxing.

A flurry of black shadows shot into the room and halted next to us, seething and convulsing before materializing into solid shapes. Cloud stumbled away from a tall, pale man who flourished his cape before letting it fall behind him. "You should realize the truth you speak, Tifa." Vincent's – I'm assuming this is his – voice was surprisingly clear considering his mouth was hidden behind a dark red scarf of sorts.

"Sorry about that Vincent." And then she frowned, looking at Cloud." "What happened to you?"

I turned to look at Cloud and saw that his arm was bleeding. "Heartless?" I asked, stepping towards Cloud and picking up his arm. Cloud nodded and winced as I moved his arm.

"These Heartless have strange abilities," Vincent said, simply and vaguely. Had I not experienced first hand the "strange abilities" I wouldn't have known what the hell this guy was talking about. It made me wonder if he had even ever seen Heartless before, the way he said that.

Cloud decided to fill us in on what happened. "The Heartless attacked and after that whole near death experience that happens after they bite you, Vincent spirited me and him back. Figured it would be good to get Yuna to look at my arm." He winced again and said, "Damn it Squall, that hurts." I frowned slightly at him but dropped his arm anyway. "Vincent, that's Leon. Leon, Vincent." All Vincent did was nod his head. Jeez, this guy was more anti-social than I was. Or maybe he just thought it was weird that I had two names.

"Let's get you up to Yuna," Tifa said. "I'll show Vincent around."

"Can I eat first? And my motorcycle is still out in the forest somewhere." Cloud scowled at Vincent who just looked at him and then headed towards the door.

Tifa rolled her eyes and followed. Looking over her shoulder she said, "Don't worry Cloud. Someone will get your motorcycle."

Obviously unhappy with the answer her got Cloud looked at me. "What?"

"Can we eat?" He looked at me with mock pleading eyes.

I shook my head. "No, you need to see Yuna first. _And_," I cut him off as he opened his mouth. "If you pass out from loss of blood, you wont' be eating for a while."

Cloud made a face at me and said, "I haven't lost _that much_ blood." He lifted his arm to look at the bite mark. "It's fine."

"You'd say your arm was fine even if it was half chewed off."

"I would not!" I shook my head and walked out of the cafeteria doors. "I'm not that stubborn!" Cloud trotted after me, intent on winning the argument.

Sometimes he was just too predictable.

* * *

Yuna had okayed Cloud, saying that what had happened to him was no different than what had happened to me. In some ways that was a relief. But I still couldn't help a feeling a dread from these near death experiences. If that's what they even were.

Once Cloud had been healed and given a clean bill of health, Yuna had ordered him to bed. Well, not necessarily ordered. She asked nicely which was the equivalent of ordering for Yuna I guess. At that point, Cloud had ordered me to go get him food. When I blatantly refused his "order" he'd asked. And when I'd still refused because he was being a smart ass, he was dumbfounded. I didn't refuse him much of anything, ever.

It wasn't until Cloud said he would clean up his stuff in the room that I said I'd go get food. Which of course made him happy, and made me happy as well. His stuff was everywhere, and you couldn't walk without stepping on something of his. It was really getting to be a little much.

As I was filling up a tray for Cloud – and myself because I hadn't eaten yet either – I felt a gust of wind and knew that Vincent must have just appeared somewhere. "Not very good for stealth is it?"

His boots clicked on the floor as he walked around behind me somewhere. "No."

I looked over my shoulder to see him studying me. Oooookay. Ignoring his staring, I picked up the trays and turned around.

"Why do you use two different names, Squall?"

"It's Leon, to you," I said stiffly. "And because Leon is the name I'm using. It's my real name now."

Vincent followed me as I walked away. He had an air of absolute confidence about him, yet underneath there was something much darker to him than met the eye.

"You didn't answer the question, not truthfully. Squall is your real name, yet you use Leon." A bit invasive, aren't we?

"Because that name is part of another life that I'd rather forget."

Vincent didn't say anything again until we got to the cafeteria doors. Damn, I thought I'd gotten away.

"It's interesting that you think you can run away from your past by changing your name. As if everything that happened will be erased just because you want it to." He paused before continuing. "Running away from your past will only make things worse. And the fact that you have let someone into your life, and let them use that name, means that you haven't really forgotten, or wish to forget, anything." Vincent locked me with his emotionless eyes, boring into me. "Sometimes confronting your past is better than ignoring it. Demons will always be demons until you can destroy them. Think about it." And then he was gone in a flash of shadows.

Great, more questions about one more person that needed answering. Just what I needed.

* * *

You like? I hope so. Not much else to say. The main plot should be coming together int he next chapter. Depends.

-Todpirscher


	5. Chapter 5

Look time between updates. Sorry. This chapter's pretty long. I had a lot I wanted to fit into it. Woooooooo. Go read now. Hehe.

* * *

"He's usually like that," Cloud said matter of fact. I sighed and put the heels of my hands over my eyes and leaned my elbows into my knees. "I'd say try not to let him get to you, but, he's usually right." I felt Cloud shift on the bed and then his warm cheek was on my shoulder.

"So, you're saying I should listen to him? Or, at least believe that what he's saying is true." Letting my hands drop between my knees, I stared at the floor as Cloud ran his fingers along my back.

He didn't answer for a while and for a moment I wasn't sure if he realized I'd asked a question. "Well," he began. "I think that you should think about what he's saying. You might realize it's true." Cloud kissed my shoulder and then kneeled behind me, putting his head on my shoulder. "Why would you let me use Squall instead of Leon, if you weren't willing to face your past?"

I thought about it, but there wasn't really a good answer. Sure, I could say it was because I loved Cloud and all, but for some reason that just seemed like a lame answer. Like our love was an excuse for me not being able to face my own demons. Damn it. Vincent and Cloud had a point.

"You know I'm right," Cloud whispered against my neck, making the hairs stand on end.

"For once," I muttered, standing up and stretching.

Cloud glared at me, and it wasn't sure if I'd moved away from him or because I'd made fun of him. It was probably because I'd moved away from him more than anything else. "Then what're you going to do about it then?"

I shook my head and pulled my pants on. "Deal with Seifer first, I guess." As I looked around for my shirt I said, "And I'm not sure how yet, so don't ask."

Cloud grinned at me. "Isn't it so cool how we sort of know what the other one is going to say before he's going to say it?"

I pulled open a draw and grabbed a fresh shirt. Dragging it over my head, I looked at Cloud who was staring at me, eagerly awaiting my answer. "Cool, if you think sheer predictability and coincidence is cool." As I passed him, I kissed him fleetingly on the lips, knowing that as I walked away he'd follow me as if I'd tied a leash around him in those few moments.

I made to grab for my jacket but it was snatched away from me. Turning around, there was Cloud facing me in his boxers with little wolves on them, holding my jacket. "Cloud. Jacket." I held out my hand but he scowled at me.

"I am _not_ a dog," he growled.

Shaking my head I replied, "No, you're a wolf." He perked up and extended his hand with my jacket. Grabbing the jacket and his hand, I pulled him into me. Wrapping my arms and the jacket around him, I had Cloud efficiently trapped against me. Leaning my head down I touched my lips to his and he pressed his against mine. It was amazing how each kiss, no matter how hard or soft, was just as mind numbing as the first. That highest plateau of pleasure reserved for lovers, Cloud and I.

Pulling away, I looked down into his bright blue eyes and realized that if I were to love anyone, it would be him, whether I was gay or not. Wrapping my arms tight around him, I leaned my head next to his ear and whispered, "I love you, Cloud."

Cloud turned to look at me and got a mischievous look on his face. "I know you do, and every else knows it, too. So you don't' have to be quiet about it." Oh, I think I understand where he's going with this. He squirmed at out my grasp and jumped onto the bed before throwing his arms up to the ceiling and shouting, "I LOVE SQUALL!"

"Great way to ruin the moment, Cloud." But I wasn't angry, far from it. A fleeting smile crossed my face and Cloud laughed and smiled and sat down on the bed. "I'm going to get food. You should come and get breakfast too. We're going to that place Tifa found the other day."

Cloud nodded and stood. "Alright, but you know what I want to shout to the world first?"

**POV**

* * *

"What do you think we're gonna find?" Sora bounced around excitedly ahead of us, running into the occasional tree when he was too busy looking at us to watch where he was going. Oh how I enjoyed that.

"Heartless? What else do you think we'd find, runt?" Tidus caught Sora in a head lock and rubbed his knuckles on Sora's spiky head.

Sora squirmed and shouted, "Get off, Tidus! You're such an ass!"

Once Cid was finished laughing he said sternly, "Tidus, put Sora down! We have business to do." Tidus released Sora but didn't look apologetic in the least. Sora glared at Tidus and then at Cid before jogging to Riku and grabbing his hand. Awww, so cute.

I looked at Squall and said quietly, "Oooo, can we hold hands?" He gave me a look that said it all: "No." I laughed and gave him a little push, which Squall ignored. Sometimes he was no fun at all.

"It should be just ahead," Tifa said. She walked to the forefront of our group and jumped over a log into a clearing. We all, of course, followed like good little minions. Jeez I hated not knowing where we going. Being a follower was so not my thing. "There," she pointed to a cave at the other end of the clearing.

"That?" Riku looked at it skeptically.

"Well, it's not as if we haven't seen Heartless in caves before," Cid pointed out. Riku nodded, but continued to look skeptical. Stupid Riku. Tifa is more reliable than you are. You went and got yourself kidnapped by Kairi and… Oh wait, I was kidnapped by Kairi too. Eheh. Well, that was _only_ because Sephiroth was out to get me and had joined forces with Kairi.

"So, are we going to go or not?" That was Squall, always to the point.

Everyone looked at Cid who shrugged and said, "Well, why not?"

And with that, we headed towards the cave. No longer walking, but not really running either. It was that kind of restrained enthusiasm that happens when you really want to get somewhere, but if you go too fast, you'll trip and fall and screw everything up.

At the entrance of the cave, we all slowed down, and Squall and I went to the forefront, as if some unspoken cue was issued. Vincent came up next to us, but neither of us questioned him. Even if we had tried to tell him what to do, he wouldn't listen. That's just the way Vincent was.

Stepping in, the first thing I noticed was how wet everything was. The rocks that weren't completely covered in green moss glistened with water, and water made puddles on the floor. The next thing that hit me was the smell of blood; it saturated the air and made something in me stir. "You smell that?"

Squall nodded, and to my surprise, Vincent did as well. "You can smell it Vincent?"

Again he nodded, and then answered, which surprised me. "My demon is much like your beast." Okay, let's not ask questions anymore.

Continuing down the tunnel, the smell of blood got stronger, and then noises started to travel down to us: squeals and snarls and other animal-like noises. Above it all, was a voice, a human voice. Odd, very odd.

The tunnel got brighter and the noises louder the closer we got to the end. Just near the end, we ducked behind a boulder and the rest of the group followed suit.

"Can you see who's talking?" Cid asked, but was still trying to peek around the boulder enough to see what was going on, and not be seen himself. We could see just as well as he could. Which was nothing.

"Heartless!" The voice that had been indistinguishable before was suddenly loud and clear. All of the Heartless fell silent as a silver haired man floated above them. For a moment I froze, seeing Sephiroth before my very eyes once again. But then I realized that the skin color, hair style and clothing were all wrong. So wrong that it made me want to leap for joy and scream at the same time. While the other silver haired bastard wasn't here, we just had another silver haired bastard to deal with.

"For too long have you been subjugated by the humans!" There was an uproarious noise from the Heartless below him. The black mass moved as one, with splashes of color here and there from their Heartless marks. This was actually pretty scary, I admit. Heartless on their own, without anyone ordering them, were a nuisance. These new, more powerful Heartless that did weird things to you when they bit you, were worrisome and a bit scary. Get those two groups together and put them under a coherent leader, and stuff was bound to hit the fan.

Note, I said coherent. Not sane, but coherent. Because most of these guys were absolutely brilliant, but not sane. Pity.

"We will get rid of the human's protectors and you will rule." He probably meant that _he_ would rule, but a good dictator never tells his little soldiers anything that might turn them from his side. The Heartless were still in an uproar but the man's voice could be heard above them as if they were making no noise at all. "Go now! We strike soon!"

The Heartless began to stampede out of the cave, and thankfully none of them came our way. A couple flew up towards the ceiling, where I guessed there was a hole or something for them to get out of.

Floating to the ground and landing gracefully and lightly on his feet, the man walked towards a side of the cave. "Soon, I will be able to open the Door to the Light." We all shifted around the rock slightly so that we could see what he was doing. He stood before a great silver door in the wall and stroked it tenderly with his hand. "But the Princess' Hearts will not be needed. No, not this time." He chuckled evilly and turned on his heel to face the other wall. "Soon, very soon."

Someone tugged on my arm and I looked back to see Squall pulling at me. "Come on," he mouthed. I turned to get one last look at the strange man but he was gone. I blinked, as if I'd missed something. There were only so many places he could have gone, and I'd only looked away for a moment. Where'd he go?

"Squall," I whispered, but he was already moving back up the tunnel. Had he seen where the man had gone?

Running to catch up to Squall I said, "Did you see where he went?"

"What?" He looked at me and then said, "Oh, no, he was still walking to the other side of the cave when I left you. Why?"

I sighed. "Because he just disappeared. I was only looking at you for a moment, but when I turned around he wasn't there anymore."

Squall shrugged. "Maybe he just flew up to the ceiling again, like a bat. Besides, I think he was the one that made those weird footprints in the forest."

I remembered Squall telling me about the footprints he'd found. He'd taken me to where he thought they were, but there was nothing there. Neither of us had expected there to be anything. And I trusted Squall and his abilities. If he knew what he'd seen, then that's what he'd seen.

The others were waiting for us at the other end of the clearing, away from the cave's entrance. "I can't believe he's back…" Sora's voice came out as barely a whisper. Riku had wrapped his arms around the younger boy's shoulders and was leaning the side of his face into Sora's.

"Who was that?" Sora looked up at Yuna and seemed about to scream.

Riku quickly intervened. "That was Ansem." Oh, so that's why Sora was a bit freaked. Ansem, the one who had torn our worlds apart looking for the Door to the Light, yadda yadda yadda. So I was a bit fuzzy on the details. Not my fault. I was fighting my own personal battles with Hades and the Underworld.

Sora sighed and shuddered into Riku's arms who seemed to be taking this much better than Sora was. Last I heard Riku had been quite involved in the story with Ansem. In any case…

Cid looked around at everyone and said quietly, "I think you all know what I'm going to say." We all nodded, but didn't say what he meant. That this would complicate things was a bit of an understatement. "I don't understand why he doesn't need the princesses' hearts though… Is it just that he can't get to them?" Cid leaned against a tree, arms crossed over his chest, and one leg crossed over the other.

"Maybe he found another way to open the door? Something to do with these new Heartless?" Riku looked around at us while he said it, still not letting go of Sora.

Tifa stepped forward and said, "I think we should stop discussing this in front of the enemy's hideout." Oh, right, good idea. The rest of us seemed to have suddenly realized that we were still right by the Heartless cave.

Ooops.

**POV

* * *

**

So, we didn't get much done once we'd gotten back. The fact that Ansem was back and he was trying to open another Door to the Light wasn't as traumatizing to the rest of us as it was to Sora. Riku seemed preoccupied with keeping Sora from having a panic attack and Yuffie was aiding him.

As she put it, "It took a girl's intuition to really help someone." Um, sure Yuffie. I only hoped that Riku wouldn't try to kill her if she did anything stupid.

Me? I was wandering the streets and collecting my thoughts. After our little group huddle had led to nothing, everyone had dispersed to go do their own thing. Cloud had, of course, gone to eat. Damn, when was he _not_ eating? Actually, you don't have to answer that because it's probably some lewd answer involving me.

I knew the story of what had happened with Ansem, but we'd had to explain it to Cloud. He'd been stuck in the Underworld, fighting with Hades so he wouldn't have to kill Sora. The part about him being a mercenary hadn't surprised me. It was the part about Cloud not being able to carry out his job that had surprised me. Him being too soft to do a job? Not how I'd pictured it. But Cloud had said that he couldn't kill "just a kid" because some Underworld god demanded it of him.

Because really, what can a god of the Underworld do to you? Not always the sharpest sword on the rack, but at least Cloud had his morals straight.

Most of the time.

Turning a corner, I caught a flash of a white coat with red splotches on it. Seifer? What the hell was he doing out and about? He should still be in the infirmary with the others. Especially with Fujin. I wasn't sure what Fujin would do if Seifer went missing after she'd lost Raijin as well. So, off I went, following Seifer to prevent Fujin from killing anyone. Because that would be a bad thing.

"Hey, Seifer," I shouted and jogged to where he'd turned the corner. He was still walking and I wondered if he'd heard me. Bastard was probably just ignoring me. What had Vincent said about facing my demons? If I just killed Seifer now, then _that_ particular demon would be gone.

But, I wasn't a backstabbing kind of person. So skip that.

Besides, I didn't have my Gunblade. And there was no pointy instrument suitable for stabbing sooooo…

"Seifer!" This time he turned around, looking mildly surprised. Mildly surprised? Why? Was he not expecting to be found? Or was he, and he was just surprised that he'd been found so quickly? Okay, paranoia setting in. Stop.

I slowed my running to a fast walk, letting go of my paranoia. "What are you doing? You should be back at the infirmary." So Fujin won't kill anyone.

Seifer shrugged. "I decided to go for a walk. Nothing wrong with that." This new, less angry, more content Seifer was aggravating. He took away my reason to hate him and at the same time made _me_ seem like the angry, psychotic one.

"You should really stay at the house. It's not safe out here." I had to choke those last words. Concerned about my arch enemy? Honestly, maybe there was something in the water that was screwing us all up.

I stopped in front of Seifer who again shrugged. The impassivity and aggravation of it all. "I never took you as one for being gay."

At his comment I actually took a step back and almost gaped but caught myself and clamped my mouth shut. "What?"

Seifer crossed his arms over his chest and his lips quirked into a smile. "You and Cloud, it's obvious." Rolling his eyes Seifer continued, "But still, it's hard to believe. The great lion with another man." Throwing his head back, Seifer laughed to the sky.

Still recovering from the suddenness of Seifer's revelation I said hotly, "It is no business of yours who I care to love." Finished with this conversation and with attempting to bring Seifer back to the house, I turned on my heel and began to stalk away from Seifer.

What an arrogant, egocentric bastard. What did he know about love? Nothing, abso –

Seifer grabbed my shoulder and turned me around, pressing me against the nearest wall. "Get the hell off you stupid bastard!"

I pushed at his chest but he leaned in and kissed me anyway. Yes, you read right. Seifer kissed me. I stood there, wide eyed, trapped between the wall and Seifer as he pressed his lips to mine.

As quickly as he had pressed his lips to mine, he was gone and I was gasping for breath that was stuck in my throat. Seifer stepped away and looked up, a big grin on his face. Lifting a hand he waved and then looked at me. "Looks like someone just saw what you did." Shit, no.

I pushed myself away from the wall and spun around, looking up in the direction that Seifer had been. Cloud's blonde hair and dark clothing were bobbing away on a balcony.

"All good things must come to an end Leon. You know that, everyone knows that. But you especially."

Wheeling around, I fisted my hand and swung at Seifer who was laughing at the sky again. My fist connected with his jaw and there was a satisfying 'thunk'.

"You will die, the next time I see you. Don't ever come back." Seifer stared up at me from the ground, but his face was still twisted in his sick laughter. "I swear it, you will die."

Seifer stuck up his middle finger. "Whatever you say."

**POV

* * *

**

I stood in the middle of the cobbled street, looking up at the gray clouds. It was going to rain. The whole clichéd movie aspect of rain at a scene of romantic drama pissed me off to no end. I didn't want it to rain. I wanted it to be sunny, give the illusion that everything was fine. Because in reality, things were fine.

Sure there was the fact that Ansem was back and Heartless were running around with new powers and people were undoubtedly going to die.

Plus, Squall had just been making out with Seifer.

The man who he had supposedly hated. Hated so much he wanted to kill him.

Hated so much that he was kissing him.

I clenched my fists at my sides as the first drops of rain were beginning to fall. Because, despite all of this going on in my suddenly screwed up life, no one else was dealing with these problems. Their lives were bright and sunny, merely inconvenienced by the rain that would soon pass. How long would the rain and clouds hang over my head for?

"Cloud?" I opened my eyes, realizing that the rain was coming down harder now and I was going to get soaked. Squall was standing in front of, fidgeting with his leather jacket. It would get ruined. Boo hoo.

"What do you want?" My voice was a harsh snarl, but Squall looked at me like it didn't bother him.

"Are you okay?"

My mouth actually dropped open at his question. "Okay? Do I look 'okay' Squall? How do you think _you'd_ feel if you'd just seen _me_ making out with Sephiroth?" Well, I hated Sephiroth as much as he supposedly hated Seifer, so I felt the analogy was a good one. "I think you'd feel pretty shitty Squall."

"Cloud, calm down," he took a step towards me and I stepped back. "I was going to tell you, going to explain. But you ran off."

I stared at him in disbelief. He was making excuses for himself? Hope that had been in the back of my head trying to make this into a misunderstanding was crushed swiftly and efficiently beneath his boot heel. "I can't believe you…" It came out as a strangled whisper. Leon stepped towards me again and again I stepped backwards. This wasn't the Squall I knew. Squall would never have done this. Would never have gone back on everything we had. But maybe I just didn't know him the way I thought I did.

Leon shook his head and started to walk towards me. "Let me explain, Cloud."

"You bastard!" I screamed it and meant it. Suddenly Leon's demeanor changed. His face darkened and he looked angry, really angry for the first time I'd ever seen.

"You came for me, remember that Cloud. You'd be nothing without me. You'd still be with Sephiroth is it wasn't for me. Maybe you'd like that."

I shook my head, trying to control myself so I wouldn't hit him. The rain was falling furiously now, and somewhere far off thunder cracked and lightning streaked across the sky. I couldn't tell whether the water coming down my face was the rain, or if I was crying. Damn it, I shouldn't be crying.

This was all a mistake. Everything that had happened between me and Leon, everything that I had worked for and made work. It was all apparently worthless if he would go for someone he "hated" instead of me.

I didn't need him. Turning, I left him standing there in the rain and stalked back to the house. I didn't need him. If he didn't want me, then I didn't want him.

The only thing that might have betrayed me was the fact that I was crying. Not that anyone would have noticed with the rain dripping down my face.

Because, the truth was, I did need him.

**POV

* * *

**

It had been hard, looking for Cloud in the rain. All the smells had been watered down and scattered about. But I'd finally picked him up, heading towards the house. Then, I'd had to search the house. And he'd been there, heading to the garage.

"Wait, I need to explain, Cloud." Grabbing his shoulder, I tried to turn him around but he pulled away, his face dark and furious.

"You explained enough Leon." Leon… Why was he calling me Leon? "You're not the person I knew. I don't think you ever were. It was all just a lie."

I shook my head. "No, Cloud, I haven't explained anything. Listen to me." I reached for him again, but registered too late the fist he'd pulled back and thrown at my face.

Shocked, I reeled away and saw him heading to the garage. "Good bye Leon."

Pulling my hand away from my face, I saw blood from my nose and tasted it in my mouth. My nose might be broken.

Though, hell, that wasn't the only thing broken right now.

**POV

* * *

**

Sitting on Fenrir, I contemplated where I should go and even if I should go. What was there here for me? Well, all my friends for one thing. The unfinished business with Ansem.

Maybe unfinished business with Sq-… Leon. Blah. The thought of him decided for me. I'd come back when, and if, I was ever ready to deal with him again.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something dark flash through the door. Jerking my head sharply to catch it, I saw there was nothing there in the door I'd left half open. Shrugging, I turned Fenrir on and gunned the engine.

The garage door opened and over the engine's roar I heard someone shouting my name. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Leon standing on the steps, his nose bleeding. Good, stupid bastard deserved to be socked that hard.

Gunning the engine again, I took off out of the garage and into the rain.

* * *

Drama! Hehe. I hope you got all of the foreshadowing. And know what's going on. It'll all piece together soon. Well…maybe in the seventh chapter or so. But, yes, soon. Yay! 


	6. Chapter 6

FanFic has not allowed me to sign in for the longest time. –anger- But I've finally got in and updated. Yay! I'm pretty sure I proofread it. XD Or…most of it anyway. I don't have a beta anymore, so I apologize for any typographical errors.

* * *

The rain had not eased up at all since I'd left. And to tell the truth, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about that. It was like I wasn't feeling anything at all. Just the need to get as far away from that town, as fast as possible. The good thing was, Fenrir operated on two speeds: fast and faster.

Stopping had not been an option for most of the trip except for when I almost shifted on the bike. I'd been so caught up in runn…getting away, that I hadn't noticed the need to change until I noticed that I was starting to see in shades instead of actual colors. If things had kept going, I might have wound up road kill. Not a very nice ending there.

So I was off again, splashing through mud puddles with not another soul around for miles. Which didn't bother me. As far as I was concerned, I didn't want to see another human being, werewolf, Heartless or whatever, for a long time. Very long time.

I was, however, expecting Vincent sometime soon. Once they all found out what that bastard had done to me, Cid would probably order Vincent to come find me. Vincent would say "Okay" and then disappear for a while, and when he felt like it, would come and find me.

I say "find me" instead of "try to fine me" because Vincent would find me. He was able to do those kinds of things. I swerved the bike off the road and into the trees.

But I wasn't going to make it easy for him.

Because I didn't want to go back. Ever.

Sure, Cid and Tifa and Yuffie were there. And Riku and Sora and everyone else were pretty cool too. But Leon was there, and so was Seifer. And I wasn't sure if I'd be able to see Seifer without killing him, or be able to see Leon without killing him or myself.

The path through the forest was fairly narrow and the tree branches snapped and pulled at me as if trying to pull me back to the road. No matter how hard I tried to avoid it, my mind kept replaying those last scenes in the town. Leon and Seifer, the rain, his blood. Now it was all jumbled together, lacking any kind of chronological order.

I swerved to go around a tree that was bent over the path. The wet branches slithered over me, making me more soaked than I already was; which I hadn't thought was possible. Then again, considering past events, I guess nothing is impossible.

But I was tired of feeling depressed; tired of feeling like the world was over. I _wasn't_ tired of being angry. Anger fueled me like nothing else and allowed me to keep going for so long since I'd left. Some people say anger is a bad thing, but I don't really think so. It's actually pretty helpful. But I definitely was not a depressed, "end of the world" kind of person. And the fact that I was acting that way just made me angrier and more depressed. A sick cycle, no?

Blinking, the world suddenly zoomed into focus. I didn't have time to think of anything except, "Oh shit" as the trunk of a tree hurtled towards me. Or rather, as I hurtled towards it. But whatever, screw the technicalities.

Slamming the brakes and turning, the bike slid in the mud, spewing it up under the spinning wheels. I felt it turn and at the same time fall to the side.

Suddenly, I was flying.

**POV

* * *

**

Yuna was still fussing over me. "Really Leon, I can heal it." She motioned to my nose with her glowing hand, ready to jump ahead with the healing process.

I glared at her and growled nasally, "No." Damn it, this had to have been the fifth time she'd asked, and she was starting to wear on my patience.

She dropped her hand with a sigh and walked away. So I was grumpy. Screw you, pal. Reaching up, I ran a finger over my nose and the tape of the bridge of it. There was a weird bump now where the cartilage had snapped. My whole nose stung painfully when I touched it, or made any kind of facial expression actually. I'd keep that odd bump, and it would probably make my nose a little funny, but I didn't care.

Yuna didn't seem to understand that I wanted the broken nose. As weird as it seemed, it was the only thing that I really had left of Cloud. It was pain; but to me, it was good pain.

"I got Vincent to go out and look for Cloud, Leon." I looked up and saw Cid standing over me, slowly working the cigarette in his mouth. He grunted as I nodded. There was nothing for me to say really, so what did he want? "Thank you"? Not really. As much as I wanted Cloud back, if he didn't want me then to hell with that.

Cid nudged my boot with his. "So what exactly happened between you two?" I studied Cid's face, but found no clues there as to was he was thinking.

"Haven't Yuffie and Tifa told you already?" Besides the, Yuna was the only other person who knows the story.

"I want to hear it from you," he said. "You know how Yuffie gets with drama." Yeah, I did know how Yuffie got with drama. Crazy.

Cid's face remained emotionless, even as I tried to figure out what was going through his head and if he'd already chosen sides and was against me no matter what. He didn't seem like that kind of person. In fact, I knew he wasn't that kind of person. But still, I was a bit on edge after Yuffie had flipped out when I'd started telling her what had happened. If it hadn't been for Tifa, my nose wouldn't be the only broken thing right now.

Sighing, I retold my story to Cid with a few alterations. All throughout, I watched his face, tyring to figure out what he was thinking. But his face remained flat and calm.

Cid sat down, arms crossed over his chest, and closed his eyes. After a few moments he said, "You know he won't come back easily." I released a breath that I didn't know I'd been holding.

Cid wasn't against me.

He must have seen my reaction because he grinned. "Had ya worried?" I nodded and glared as he chuckled. "Well don' worry. I'm with you on this one." He stood, shook his head and shrugged. "Hard headed little bastard. In any case, we'll have to keep working on the Ansem problem without him. That can't wait." He motioned towards my nose. "You know Yu – "

I shook my head and held up my head. "I know. No thanks."

Cid shrugged and started to leave. "Suit yourself. But I'll have you know, it mars your gorgeous face."

* * *

Yuffie squealed, dropping a pile of Cloud's clothing on the ground. "I think something moved." She nudged the pile of clothes with her boot and shuddered. "Are you sure you want to clean up his stuff? If you get it all together, it might turn into a monster and eat us all."

I tossed some of Cloud's clothing into an open drawer. "Yes, Yuffie. I can't leave it lying around." Because then it really might turn into a monster and eat someone. At least if it was all trapped in a drawer…

She made a noise as she picked up the clothes and held them away at arm's length. "Oh it's not that bad," I said, a bit annoyed. It didn't smell that bad. Not really.

Yuffie dumped her load into the drawer. "I don't know how you _live_ with him," she grimaced. "Couldn't you have gotten someone else to do this with you?" As she walked past me, she rubbed her hands on my arm as though wiping something off. I first checked my jacket to make sure that she hadn't put anything on me and then glared at her, even if it made my nose hurt. Her response was to giggle.

"Great, thanks Yuffie."

"No problem," she said, still giggling.

"I got you to do because Cid is with Shera and Tifa is making plans for when we fight Ansem." I could already tell what her next question was. "Yuna would insist on healing my nose. And as nice as she is, I'm tired of her asking. None of the others know and I couldn't ask them to help without explaining about Cloud. And I don't want to do that."

Maybe it was a little silly that I didn't want to tell Riku, Sora and Tidus what had happened. But for some reason I didn't' want them to know. It didn't have anything to do with pride. What pride was there to be lost? Alright, maybe the fact that Cloud had broken my nose and left me. But things happen, right?

No, I guess I didn't see it that way. Pride was keeping me from telling them.

Yuffie threw an amused look at me. "And if they ask about your nose?"

"Sparring accident."

"And risk your pride?" Yuffie seemed incredulous. Yes, my pride was precious to me. It was precious to a lot of us. But what it came down to was which course of action would hurt more? The fact that I'd gotten injured fighting, or that I'd gotten injured by Cloud while he was leaving me?

The second choice was worse.

"I guess so."

Yuffie shook her head. "Who'd you have the accident with?" She looked smug, as though she'd caught me.

"Cloud." I would have looked smug except it would have hurt too much.

Yuffie gave me a look that clearly said, "Yeah right." Cloud and I rarely landed blows on one another. And if we did, it was never as severe as even a broken nose. But, Cloud was also the only one that could hit me.

"What if they ask where Cloud is? No one, except you, had seen him since we were at the cave." Again, that smug look. This time it was almost warranted. What should I tell them?

I threw some more clothes into the drawer. "Are you satisfied?" I couldn't help the hard tone in my voice; I was just tired of talking about Cloud.

Yuffie sighed. "They're going to realize sooner or later that something's up. Sora and Tidus will probably take a while. But Riku…" She trailed off.

"Yeah, I know." I threw a shirt rather violently into the drawer. "He seems to always have a pretty good idea of what's going on. Or at least be able to figure out what's going on." Unlike Sora and Tidus, who were pretty clueless most of the time. I'm still not sure if Tidus believes that me and Cloud are together…were together.

Siting on the bed, I watched Yuffie as she came over and sat next to me.

"Ya never know. Vincent might have him back by then." And then she surprised me by leaning over and hugging me. Just as suddenly, she jumped up, off the bed and turned to face me, hands on her hips and leaning forward, a huge grin on her face. "Don't get used to that. One time deal." With a laugh, she left me sitting stunned on the bed.

Will the surprises ever cease?

* * *

I didn't want to go to the infirmary to get Cid. But Tifa had practically ordered me on threat of death to do it. Cid had been with Shera all day yesterday while Tifa was planning, and she was tired of planning on her own. Not that I blamed her. Shera should be fine by now. I didn't know why she was still laid up in bed.

Taking a breath, I pushed open the door and scanned the room. Cid was sitting and talking with Shera; Seifer and Fujin were no where to be seen. I'd expected Fujin to disappear is…when Seifer left.

I crossed the room and stood behind Cid, who seemed to not have noticed that I'd entered the room. The woman who was Shera looked up and smiled. "Cid," she said pleasantly. "I think they need you." The soft looking woman with glasses and a tinkly voice was the complete opposite of the kind of woman I would have guessed Cid would go for. You know, tight, skimpy black leather, really kinky. Maybe Shera was secretly kinky. Not that I'd know or ever want to know.

Cid twisted in his seat, saw me, and turned back to Shera. "Oh, okay." He leaned over and kissed Shera. "See you later."

Once we were out of the room I asked, "Why is she still in the infirmary?"

Cid took a while answering. "Because that's where she needs to be."

"Don't' give me that bullshit, Cid. She's perfectly fine."

Cid opened and closed his mouth a couple of times like a fish, as if looking for an argument and not finding one. Finally, he dropped his head and said, "Yeah, you're right."

Was I feeling bad? No. Everyone needs a kick in the ass once in while. And Cid needed one now. "We've got Ansem to deal with right now. Shera should not be a priority." As much as I wanted to physically kick him in the ass, I said this gently. I knew what it was like to have someone I loved in a near death experience. Very scary and not enjoyable. "Shera's not going anywhere. She'll be here when you get back."

"Alright, alright," Cid said loudly, extending the words. "I don't need a lecture, Leon." He stepped into the room ahead of me.

Tifa's annoyed voice greeted him. "Well, you finally decided to show up."

Cid pulled out a chair and sat in it with his characteristic air of disinterest: leaning back on the legs, arms crossed over his chest. "Let's get down to business," Cid said, completely ignoring Tifa's annoyance with him. "You've been making up plans?"

By drawing Tifa's attention towards all her hard work, she seemed to have forgiven him for now.

"We don't really know what's up with Ansem," Tifa began, "except for the Door to the Light and the Heartless. Except, we don't know where to find Ansem. Which, is a pretty big problem. But, I figured that maybe if we go back to the cave, we'd find him there. If we can get rid of Ansem, the Heartless should fall to chaos." She grinned slightly. "Like they always do without a leader." It amazed me how Tifa knew so much about the Heartless, but had only been fighting them for a little while. Maybe she was just really good at strategy. Either way, I loved having her here.

"I'm just a bit worried about how strong he is. If he can control the Heartless…"

"Don't worry Tifa," Sora said with a confident grin. "We beat him before, we can beat him again." Riku wrapped his arm around Sora's waist and pulled Sora into him. I felt my chest tighten up and looked away.

"We also have to wonder why he doesn't need the Princesses' hearts," Cid mused. Wait, did I say mused? Cid doesn't muse; he just says things and sounds like he thought them out. Which he usually doesn't.

"A new power source maybe?" Yuffie's idea actually seemed to make sense. If he didn't need their hearts than he'd obviously found another way to open the door. "Unless he just doesn't need the hearts anymore. Maybe there's a way to force the door open." That was a possibility too.

"I doubt it," Riku said. I focused on Cid who was looking at Riku and moving his cigarette from one side of his mouth to the other. "Why would he have to wait then? If he opens the door he'll have as many Heartless as he wants."

"Because he wants to get rid of us," I said.

Cid turned his chair to look at me. "Really? You think so?" There was nothing sarcastic about the way he said it, so I nodded.

Tifa shook her head. "Still, if he opens the door and gets the Heartless… There are only so many Heartless that we can all take on before we're overwhelmed. Why not just ensure his success by opening the door?"

"He… He needs us. Our hearts. To open the door." Tidus seemed surprised that he'd come up with an answer. In fact, I think all of us were surprised that he'd come up with that.

But Cid nodded. "That makes sense. Which means we could be walking into a trap." Tidus' grin faded as Cid said trap. Because Cid was absolutely right. As I said before, Ansem was psychotic, but he was also somewhat of a genius. He certainly could have thought all this up already. "But what other choice do we have..?" Cid murmured, frowning at the floor.

"We don't have one," I answered back. We were going to have to do something and do it soon. Ansem and the Heartless would come after us either way, and I'd rather be attacking than defending given the choice.

Everyone shifted around the room, obviously uncomfortable with the choice. Hey, I didn't say it was the most enjoyable of choices. It was just the best one that he had at the moment.

"Tomorrow," Cid started, still frowning at the floor. "Tomorrow night, we will go to the cave and find Ansem. And deal with this now. We can't wait for…" He paused, still as a statue before continuing. "For Vincent to get back." I realized what he had been going to say and was thankful that he'd caught himself. "Be ready for tomorrow night."

As we left, I noticed Riku watching me while Sora chattered about nothing really. I avoided him as much as possible and retreated to my room.

* * *

We slipped through the forest, barely making a sound except for the brush of leaves on cloth. And I'm sure the only reason why I heard that was because my wolf's hearing was a lot more sensitive than a human's. Either way, the noise rubbed my nerve's raw and I kept expecting a bunch of Heartless to leap out of the trees or bushes at us.

But nothing did, and we all got to the cave in one piece. In the cool night air, I could hear everyone's breathing, coming a little faster than normal. The combination of adrenaline and jogging through the woods. Excitement shivered through us as we looked at the entrance of the cave.

Without needing any encouragement, we started towards the cave again. Once inside, I painfully noticed how resonant the cave was, if even slightly. The tread of footsteps echoed all around me. It was only when I realized that no one else was bothered by it that I realized that my sensitive hearing was picking up noises that no one else could hear again. Damn it.

The tunnel started to brighten as we got to where we had first seen Ansem. Slowing down, I could hear my pulse start to pick up in my ears, and I swear I could hear the heartbeats of everyone around me.

Cid edged into the huge cavern first and the rest of us followed. No one was in there right now, not one Heartless. The huge cavernous…cavern… arched up high over our heads with about nine different tunnels leading off on the ground level. Yes, ground level, because there were about 10 other tunnels leading out of the cavern that were in the walls. Whoever had carved all this out had way too much free time on their crazy hands.

Oh, right, Ansem. Haha.

"Hello there." Alright, that could only be one person.

Looking up, Ansem was descending from the top of the cavern, looking as manically happy as ever.

"It seems as though you've found me. Bravo."

**POV

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**

It took me a moment to realize that the roaring sound in my ears wasn't coming from me. Though, I'm sure if there had been no roaring, my ears would be ringing like crazy. I opened my eyes slowly, and saw the tiring of the bike spinning lazily over me. I think I'd just come this close to being crushed by my bike.

Gulp.

I looked down at my body and slowly moved everything to make sure it was all working properly and no bones were sticking out or anything. My head kind of hurt, and my ribs felt bruised, but other than that I felt fine.

Slowly, I slid myself away from the spinning wheels of the bike and just as slowly stood up and looked around. The carnage left behind by the bike was easily seen by the ripped up bushes and streaked mud. The rain was still falling and was pittering softly on everything. I made a face at the bike, now covered in mud. I was covered in mud too and made little squelching noises when I moved.

Reaching over the bike, I tried to pull it upright but my ribs ached in silent protest. I grunted and pulled it upright anyway. The bike teetered and I kicked at the kickstand to put it down. Hey, it wasn't called a "kickstand" for nothing, right?

I looked over my shoulder as the trees rustled behind me and then ducked quickly as a dark shape hurtled out of the trees towards me. A Heartless. A small one though, not a weird wolf or anything big and scary. I pulled the Buster Sword from Fenrir as the Heartless wobbled around and twitched its head in a very characters Heartless way. They were in like, constant seizure mode. Or in constant drunkenness mode or something. The little ones never seemed to operate correctly.

As it jumped at me again, I reached back to swing, but didn't have to. Another, bigger, black shadow materialized next to the Heartless and out flowed Vincent as though he entering onto a dance floor. Just as gracefully, Vincent pulled out his shotgun and blew the Heartless to shreds of darkness.

"Nice of you to show up," I said, lowering the point of the Buster sword to the muddy ground, trying to ignore the pain in my ribs. Vincent nodded, and then seemed to focus on something to my side.

I followed where he was looking and saw the shreds of darkness coming back together to form something else. Or…someone else it seemed.

When they stopped moved, I stared, astonished. "Squall?" So astonished, that I forgot I calling him Leon, not Squall. The Squall Heartless went through all the motions of the Squall I had met up with in the rainy streets. The angry face, the lips forming those stupid words.

"Squall…" I said softly.

He hadn't betrayed me, hadn't said those things about Sephiroth and me. It was the Heartless. My mind flashed back to him and Seifer. That must have al been Seifer. A ploy, to get me away, to separate us. My hands clenched into fists and I looked at Vincent who nodded, as if he had already known what was going on and was just waiting for me to piece it together.

"We have to hurry. They've already gone to take down Ansem."

Vincent turned into shadows and engulfed me, taking me back home.

Back to Squall.

* * *

Woo! End Chapter 6. Go me! Hope you're all liking this one as much as the first one.

-Todpirscher


	7. Chapter 7

Sorry about the lack of updates. I had writer's bloc every other word with this chapter. But now I think that it's better. Unfortunately, the fic is also winding down. Soooo… XD

* * *

I kicked the bars of the cage angrily and looked around at everyone else sitting glumly in their cages. After Ansem had congratulated us, we'd seriously been ready to rumble. There was one small contingency to our plan though.

Ansem had those demented Heartless wolves waiting for us. So, we could either fight the multitude of Heartless wolves and risk one of us getting seriously messed up, or we could let Ansem stick us in these cages and bide our time.

You can guess what our choice was, though none of us had been pleased with this choice.

Ansem circled above us in the air, because he was still floating. The Heartless wolves had receded to the edges of the cave and were just sitting there. Their lifeless white eyes peered out at us; soulless monsters. Or, I guess, heartless monsters. And yes, that pathetic little pun was intended.

"And now I have all the fishes in the barrel." I hadn't even realized Ansem had been talking. Damn, how long _had_ he been talking? Was there anything important that I'd missed? Probably not. Evil tends to ramble on about nothing, but still. "Which one should I kill first?" I pressed myself against the cold metal bars and looked up, trying to get a better view of him.

He was descending now, winding his way between the cages. They were round cages, a bit like bird cages, and weren't that big. I had about in inch of clearance over my head and if I spread my arms out, I could easily touch either side of the cage.

Ansem was actually quite irritating. Of course, I'd never met him before, but I thought he'd be more terrifying than this. Sora was absolutely petrified of the man. And… Well, Sora was also petrified of spiders. Hmmm… Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have been expecting this guy to be as scary as Sephiroth, no matter how much alike they looked. But really, the extreme psychosis was a bit much.

He floated around to Yuffie's cage and peered in at her. "Hello there Yuffie."

Yuffie fumbled for a moment before replying, "How do you know my name? I never… Never met you!" She gripped her Ninja star tightly.

"Honestly Yuffie, could it be that hard to figure that?" A new voice echoed through the cave. Well, not really a new one in the recognition sense. I definitely knew this voice.

"Seifer," I growled, turning in the direction that his voice had come from. Haughtily, the man who had torn apart Cloud and I sauntered in, looking as though he were on top of the world. I fell back on old memories, when he'd once looked that haughty. As the Sorceress's White Knight. Oh what a joy he'd been then.

Fujin trailed behind them, shouting monosyllabically at the Heartless wolves who growled at her.

"You traitor! Bastard!" Tifa was grabbing the bars, her knuckles white, face angry. There were similar reactions among the rest of group. We'd all figured out he was a traitor after he'd kissed me, but to go lengths such as this…

Originally we'd thought he'd just done it to screw me up. But he'd been doing it for a larger cause instead.

"And now you will all see clearly," Ansem said in a loud voice. His voice just seemed to claw at you and want to rip your skin off.

"Darkness! Oblivion!" He reached a hand out toward Yuffie and she recoiled against the far bars of the cage. "That is what is in store for you. All of you!"

Ansem crossed his arms over his chest and closed his orange eyes for a moment.

"Darkness…Oblivion….Yuffie!" You will come with me!" Had he just been using the words "darkness" and "oblivion" as an "eeny meeny miney mo" kind of thing? Or did he just like to say those words?

Ansem opened his autumn orange eyes and focused them on Yuffie. "Seifer, get the girl and bring her to me."

**POV

* * *

**

When Vincent and I reappeared, we were in some kind of tunnel. But it wasn't a tunnel in the cave that I was familiar with. If we were even in the right cave, which I seriously hoped we were.

"Where are we?" It couldn't hurt to ask. And I'd really like to know and not be surprised by anything.

"The cave. In a tunnel above the main one." Oh. At least we were kind of in the right area.

"Any reason why we're up here and not down there?"

"We are less likely to be seen by someone here." Oh, eheh. That made sense. Good idea Vincent.

He started off going in what to me seemed like a random direction. There were, of course, only two directions to go in with a fifty-fifty chance of being right. But Vincent probably already knew exactly where he was going.

I followed silently, and Vincent moved almost as quietly as I did. We moved pretty fast and it didn't take long before we got to the end of the tunnel. Looking down – a long way down – I saw the round, bird-like cages at the bottom.

Odd. Those hadn't been there before.

"That's where everyone is," Vincent said calmly.

I turned to him, incredulous. "The _cages_?" Vincent nodded. "Well let's get down there then."

Again I was enfolded in the darkness of Vincent's cloak. When next I saw light, we were on the cave floor and everyone was staring at us. Except Yuffie.

"Where's Yuffie?" Vincent asked.

"That bastard Ansem took her. Seifer is here too." I clenched my fists as Cid gave a really short explanation of what was going on. Scanning the cages, I found Squall. He was looking at me carefully, as if expecting me to do something terrible. I heard Vincent make a reply to Cid, but the words floated meaninglessly around my head. At the moment, I only had eyes and ears for Squall.

Hesitantly I walked towards him, looking at his eyes the whole way. There was something there; something I didn't like but couldn't quite put a name to. I took a deep breathe and exhaled as quietly as I could, steeling myself for the worst.

What if the same Heartless who had made me believe that it was "Squall" had made believe to be "Cloud" to him? Had it done something to Squall, who then thought that _I_ was the one who had done it? This was all mind boggling just to think about.

Standing before him as though I was awaiting judgment, I took in the emotionless eyes and the broken nose and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Did Yuffie do that?" Damn it. Big mouth.

Squall's face darkened and I instantly knew that I'd said the wrong thing. Shit.

"No, _you_ did it." His dark look was made even darker by the black eyes from the broken nose. But it didn't stop me from being confused, if for just a moment.

The first thing that went through my mind was that I didn't punch him. I'd never punched him. And besides, I hadn't even been near enough to punch him after his little outburst in the street. Or, no, since I had seen Seifer kiss Squall. The "Squall" in the street had been a Heartless.

And as all these thoughts flashed through my mind, that's when what happened hit me.

Apparently, I did have a Heartless clone thingy and it had been screwing things up for me.

"No, Squall, it wasn't me. The Heartless, there was on of you and it came up to me in the streets, and said some stupid shit, so I went and left. Whoever punched you was a Heartless, not me." I could tell he didn't believe a word of what I was saying. Not that I could blame him. But I _needed_ him to believe me. "Squall, please…"

"Stop calling m – "

"He's telling the truth." I turned at the sound of the deep baritone and saw Vincent behind me. He sounded annoyed and he actually looked annoyed too, behind the red scarf. And that was all he said before he walked away towards Cid.

I looked back at Squall, and he seemed to be wondering whether or not he should believe me. Impatient, I growled, "Come on. If I hated you that much to punch you, I wouldn't have come back." I didn't tell Squall how close I'd come to never coming back, though. Reaching through the bars, I touched his hand and he didn't flinch away or yell. When nothing bad happened, I grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

"Please…" It came out as a whisper and I wasn't sure if he'd even heard it.

But then his hand grabbed mine, and he smiled. A smile meant only for me that disappeared as quickly as it had come, like his smiles usually do. But still, that one smile just made me want to melt against him. If only these freaking bars weren't in the way.

"Um, we're still here?" That was Sora. I dragged my eyes away from Squall's and looked at the little brunette who was made to look even smaller by being in the cage. "And I for one would really like to be out of here." And then he crossed his arms over his chest and pouted. I could see why Riku went for the pouty little kid thing, but this was a bit much.

I pulled my hand from Squall's. For once, it was me who let go and not him. Reluctantly, I pulled my hand from the bars and grinned arrogantly at Sora. "Don't worry runt. We'll get you out of here." By "we'll" I just meant Vincent at this point, since he was the only other person not in a cage.

"Do you have some magical keys that we're not aware of?" Oh, the sarcasm is biting Riku, but unnecessary. No need to get nasty just because I like to pick on your little boyfriend over there.

"Aye, I think they do." Cid pushed on the door to his cage and it swung open. He stepped out triumphantly with a huge grin on his face. "Thanks there, Vincent."

Despite being showed up, Riku grinned. Vincent went to work next on Tifa's cage, and I looked forlornly at Yuffie's cage. Wherever she was now, I hope she not going through anything too terrible, if anything at all.

My chest ached as I thought of Yuffie and what might be happening to her. Until I realized that it wasn't my chest that was hurting, but my ribs.

Tentatively, I pressed on my left side. What started off as an ache branched off into shooting pain. Wincing, I snatched my hand from my side. Even more gently I pressed on my right side. Nothing greeted my hand but my own ribs, nice and intact.

"What did you do to yourself?" I turned and Squall was glaring at me slightly.

Grinning, and trying to hide my sheepishness, I replied, "Accident on my bike."

Squall shook his head. "I should take away your toy until you learn how to work it better."

"Don't blame me! It's Cid's fault."

Cid chose that moment to approach us with Tifa and heard what I said. "What're you blamin' on me, ya little bastard?"

"Oh, nothing, Cid." I shrugged and Cid frowned at me but let it go.

Hell, there were more important things going on right now.

Once Vincent had gotten everyone out, we all gathered together to make up plans for…whatever was going to happen. Because I don't think any of us really knew what was going on. Seifer and Ansem were currently MIA and they had Yuffie. At any moment, they could reappear here with masses of Heartless to kill us.

Sounds great, doesn't it?

"Why don't we just wander around and look for them?" Tidus suggested.

"Because that would be very unproductive and time consuming," Squall replied with barely contained sarcasm.

"So then we're just going to wait for them to come find us?" Tidus sounded annoyed.

Cid took a slight step forward and said, "Look, we need to find Yuffie. Wherever she is, that will be where Ansem is, and most likely Seifer as well. So, we are going through that tunnel," he pointed at a tunnel behind us, "because that is where Ansem, Yuffie, and Seifer went."

No one questioned what Cid said. And as before, Squall and I took the lead. Vincent took the rear in case any of the wolf Heartless came up from behind.

The tunnels were fairly dark, lit only by the light from the main cave. I didn't have a problem seeing, but I wondered how everyone else was doing. Not too bad I think; I hadn't heard anyone run into anything or trip over anything yet.

From up ahead in the tunnel, I heard a commotion, and it echoed off the walls. Turning to Squall, he nodded and we moved a little faster.

Up ahead a door burst open. I hadn't realized that there'd been doors in the walls. But in any case, light streamed out of the door and Yuffie leaped out of it.

"You sick bastard! You bit me!" She put her hand to her neck. "What the hell is wrong with you!"

Yuffie turned to start running, and miraculously, she turned in our direction. When she saw us, her face lit up with relief that obscured the anger and fear that had been there just a moment before.

She ran the rest of the way and leapt on to me, wrapping her arms tightly around my neck. The smell of blood – her blood – was overwhelming for a moment, but then she let go. She stood there, breathing hard, and looking fairly okay except for the blood running down her neck.

"What the hell happened to you?" Cid asked in his coarse manner.

A table flew out from the opened door and smashed into splintered pieces.

"No time," Tifa said, and Yuffie nodded. "Let's go back to the main cave." Without another thought, we headed back the way we'd come.

As were we running, Yuffie panted, "He's…some kind of…vampire thing."

Woah, vampire? Then again, Squall and I were werewolves and Vincent was a demon. So, really, how weird was it that a vampire would show up? I guess I should have expected it sooner or later. Yuffie wiped the side of her neck disgustedly.

No one commented on what Yuffie said; we just kept running. There would be time later to discuss this.

I was so focused on the light growing larger ahead that I almost crashed into everyone in front of me who had suddenly stopped short.

"Welcome back!" Seifer's voice rang out clearly above us. I clenched my fists as though they were around his neck, and my blood boiled.

Revenge would be sweet.

**POV

* * *

**

At the sound of his voice, I wanted to sink my teeth into Seifer's throat. He'd caused so many problems in my life for me and the one's I loved. It was high time that I got rid of him. And unlike Sephiroth, Seifer was just a human. He would die and wouldn't be able to come back.

Then I saw the problem between me and my revenge. Standing in front of Seifer were a mass of Heartless wolves and other Heartless. This was pretty bad.

Behind us was the sound of triumphant laughter. I turned, but the tunnel was still pitch dark. The echoes must have carried his voice up from farther behind us.

There was a chink of metal as everyone readied their weapons.

Seifer laughed loudly, "That won't help you know I'm afraid. Go have some fun little Heartless." Eagerly, the Heartless leapt towards us in a massive black swarm.

I pushed myself to the front with Cloud and Vincent to meet the rush of the black wolves. We had to keep them away from the others at all costs, no matter what. They came before revenge against Seifer.

Swinging my Gunblade down, I cleaved the head of one wolf in two. The monster staggered a few more steps forward before bursting into shadows. Stepping to the right, I swung at the open mouth of another wolf. To my absolute surprise, the thing clamped its jaws down on the blade, causing sparks to fly. Jerking back, I kicked down on the Heartless' head with my boot, and crushed it down into the dirt.

Turning away from the disintegrating shadows, I met with the fangs and hollow white eyes of another wolf right in my face.

For a moment, everything slowed down as the jaws came within centimeters of my face. There was no way I would be able to duck or attack or do anything fast enough to avoid this. I was either going to die on the spot or, have my face ripped off and then die.

In vain, I jerked my hands and arms up to try and ward the thing off, even though I knew it wouldn't help. Just as it was about to impact with my face, the wolf turned into shadows and sailed past me, stealing my breath and sending a cold chill down my spine.

So that's what it felt like to cheat death.

"Damn, Squall, I thought you were better than that!" Tidus grinned at me before attacking another swarm of Heartless.

Stupid kid.

Stupid life-saving kid.

Damn him.

Amazingly, the Heartless numbers dwindled and I had no more near death experiences, which I was grateful for. Sometime during the fighting, I had found myself fighting back to back with Cloud. His skill in battle was amazing, but he was hurting from his bike accident. His swings were faltering and his face was contorted in pain.

In a brief lull in the battle I said, "Think you can handle a few more? Or maybe you should go sit out."

"And let you guys have all the fun? Like hell."

Then he was off, fighting with new vigor and life as if he wasn't in pain in the least.

Doing a quick three-sixty, I saw Cid spear the last couple of Heartless.

We'd won. Or, we'd at least won this part of the fight.

We still needed to take down Seifer…and Ansem.

And there they were, standing in the entrance to one of the tunnels.

"And so it comes down to this," Ansem said. I think he was trying to be dramatic, but it wasn't really working. He just sounded kind of stupid. "Oblivion! For all of you! Darkness! Oblivion!" His orange eyes flashed wickedly as he said his two favorite words.

Three words: Need larger vocabulary.

Seifer pulled out his Gunblade and a big black shadow thing appeared next to Ansem. "Begin," Ansem said, as if this were all just a game.

For a few moments, no one moved as if we were waiting for something more climatic before we commenced our battle. But there was nothing coming that would have fit that description. So Seifer, like the good little trained attack dog he was, launched himself forward at me and started a flurry of frantic movement among everyone.

Swinging my sword upward and parallel to the ground, I blocked his series of frenzied downward chops. Then he backed off slightly and seemed to compose himself, to slow down and focus. "Have you lost your touch, Seifer?" I jeered mercilessly. I wanted the words to stick in him like burrs or thorns that he'd have to drag painfully from his skin. "Or are you just so pathetic that you've forgotten how to fight?"

Seifer stepped in and swung at my legs. Dropping my sword to block, I quickly ducked as he angled his sword and changed the direction to aim at my neck. My sword darted out and made contact with his thigh. Yelping, Seifer jumped back as my sword dragged through his flesh; a literal thorn that hurt much more than the average thorn.

"Bastard," he seethed. His eyes flamed viciously and he glanced down at the leg that was freely bleeding. In his momentary distraction, I listened to what was going on around me. The sounds of battle between everyone else crescendoed around the cave in a harsh symphony. I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but I didn't get a chance to check out and see who was winning and who was losing. Hopefully, Ansem was the one losing.

Seifer darted again, and I parried his sword down to the ground. He directed a kick between my legs and I jumped away, tripping slightly over his foot. I stumbled and brought my sword up just in time to prevent him from hewing my head in two like a melon. "You're so pitiable that you have to resort to dirty tactics Seifer. I'm disappointed."

Pushing up on his sword, I slammed it back into him and he fell to the ground and rolled. Giving chase, I paused and then edged around him as he got up. His back to me, I darted my sword forward and jerked upwards, opening a nice red line in his back.

Seifer screamed and whirled on me, the epitome of white hot rage and fury. He swung his Gunblade up and pointed it me as the blade glowed blue. It only took me a moment to realize what he was going to do.

As he pulled the trigger, I dived to the side, closing my eyes and hoping it would miss. The vacuum left behind by the energy tugged at my boots, and then I hit the ground, rolled, and jumped to my feet. But the sadistic look of joy in Seifer's face was still there.

My chest tightened and I turned just in time to see Cloud staggering backwards into the open Door to the Light.

No…

As vain as my efforts would be, I ran for him anyway. Someone grabbed me from behind as Cid stabbed a stunned Ansem through the back with his spear. Cid pulled out the spear and shoved Ansem into the Light. His weird black demon howled and it followed its master through the doors of the Door to the Light ,slamming them closed after it.

**POV

* * *

**

I readied my Buster sword, watching Ansem and Seifer standing there. My ribs were aching painfully and it was all I could do to not wince as I forced myself to hold up my sword.

"And so it comes down to this," Ansem said. "Oblivion! For all of you! Darkness! Oblivion!" In all honesty, this guy would have been extremely comical if this hadn't been a Life and Death situation.

Seifer pulled out his Gunblade and a big black Heartless type thing appeared next to Ansem. "Begin," Ansem said, as if this were all just a game to him. I guess the stakes weren't as high for him as they were for us.

It probably took only a few moments for Siefer to make the first move, but it felt like an eternity, sitting there and waiting.

When he did charge forward I wanted to go instantly to Squall's side and take my revenge with him on Seifer. But I realized that Squall's beef with Seifer was probably a lot bigger than mine. So, I stayed and fought side by side with my friends against Ansem.

Ansem floated around a few inches above the air, his demon thing hovering behind him. Yuffie flung her Ninja star at him and the dark creature appeared in front of Ansem, deflecting it easily. Gaping, Yuffie's face grew set, as if to say, "No one makes a fool of me!" But she didn't move again, and the rest of us seemed unsure what to do.

Then Cid shouted, "All together!" We leapt forward, weapons raised and ready to strike Ansem from all sides. Could the shadow possibly protect him from all sides?

Apparently it could because our weapons bounced uselessly off of the shadow and Ansem cackled at the futility of our efforts. "Darkness!" The shadow thing disappeared and a well of shadows appeared under Tifa. She yelped and jumped off of it just as the Heartless leaped out from the well and grabbed at the air. As it went back into that well, another one appeared under Sora. Riku grabbed the brunette and dragged him away just as the Heartless reached out its grabbing hands again.

Even without the Heartless protection it was nearly impossible for us to get to Ansem. While we were trying to watch out for the underground Heartless, Ansem floated around and away, slipping through our attacks. Here and there we caught some of his clothing and it fluttered to the ground, but we were making absolutely no headway.

Ansem floated over to the Door to the Light and cackled again. "Oblivion! The Door will be opened, and all of you will help me!" Sine I was one of the closest people to Ansem and the Door, I fought the pain in my ribs and moved to try and get at Ansem again.

He threw up his hands and I felt something go numb inside of me. "All of you gathered here, the strength of a Hero's Heart multiplied! Your strength can open the door!" My insides heaved as it felt like something was being drawn out of me, like a string.

Somewhere above us, Ansem was still laughing, sporadically saying "Darkness" or "Oblivion".

With a gasp, the last of the pulling feeling left me. I felt as though I'd just been pulled through the eye of a needle. Looking up, I saw everyone else looked pretty much the same way that I felt.

Staggering up, I leaned on my Buster sword and looked to my right, at the Door to the Light. Ansem was staring at it in disbelief at the bright white light the poured out of it.

"You were wrong then and you're wrong now," I heard Sora gasp. Okay, Door to the Light kind if means bright light. So why was this guy so surprised?

"But, no, I had figured it out!"

I grinned to myself and tried to drag out my sword from under me. Cid was sneaking up behind him, spear ready. If Ansem noticed Cid, I could still get him from the back maybe. As I started to walk, something slammed into my back.

Staggering, I dropped my sword as searing pain exploded in my back and my head. The world spun around me and there was a faint ringing, or screaming in my ears.

As I fell backwards, I was engulfed in a blinding, white light.

* * *

My beta told me that there was something wrong with my Door to the Light. But I haven't played KHII yet and I refused to let her tell me what was wrong with it until I've played the game and see what was wrong with it for myself. Sooooo, sorry if that irks anyone, but that's the way it'll be.

-Todpirscher


	8. Chapter 8

Alrighty. Yay! Update! Go read! Heeeeeeee.

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White. That was the first thing I was conscious of.

Bright blinding white that faded to a sort of glowing white once my eyes had adjusted.

I wasn't quite sure what had happened after Cloud had fallen through the Door, but judging by all the…whiteness…I seemed to have somehow followed him. Which seemed absurd since I did clearly remember the doors closing.

My Gunblade was still in my hand, but I wasn't quite conscious of my hand holding it.

"Cloud?" My voice at once seemed to disappear before it even left my lips and reverberate in my head like an endless echo.

Some dark shape shimmered in the corner of my vision and I spun to catch it. But it was as if nothing had been there to begin with. There was just more, endless white. I frowned, or, at least I think I frowned because I couldn't feel my face.

Come to think of it, I couldn't really feel anything. Looking down, I saw that all my body parts were – thankfully – still attached to me. But feeling seemed to have completely left them.

I tried yelling this time. "Cloud!" But the same thing happened: the disappearing voice and the vibrations of his name in my head. I checked to see if my hand was clenching around my Gunblade – which it was – because I wanted to make sure my body was still listening to me, even if the physics of sound didn't.

Stepping forward into the whiteness, I think it might have been like walking through a cloud. Except I probably would have had more feeling in a cloud. This nothingness was beginning to get frightening. If this really was what was inside the Door to the Light, it wasn't much.

Unless I was dead and this was some form of afterlife. And I really hoped I wasn't dead.

I closed my eyes and tried to remember what had happened. But nothing came back to me.

As I opened my eyes, I saw a dark shape bobbing through the whiteness. So I started walking towards it. What else was I supposed to do? Stand there and wait for something to happen?

Since I still couldn't feel my body, I had to look down to make sure all the body parts were moving like they should. They were, so I looked forward at the bobbing shape that was starting to look a bit human shaped. "Cloud, are you there?" It was possible that Ansem might be staggering around with a hole in him, but that was unlikely.

The shape _had_ to be Cloud.

Though I couldn't even be sure that he had heard me because of the weird way sound worked here.

As I got closer, the shape suddenly dispersed and disappeared. "Damn it! Cloud!" I shouted angrily at nothing. Had the shape been there to begin with, or had I just been wishing it was there?

"Leon." A soft voice floated through my head. I started to say Cloud's name again, but realized that if he had been trying to call me, he would have said "Squall" not "Leon".

My name whisked through my head again, more urgent now. Suddenly the world started to shake.

"Yuffie! Stop it!" Yuffie? Why was she here?

My eyes shot open and there was Yuffie, standing over me and shaking me violently. Tifa seemed to have been trying to pull her off, but didn't need to anymore. Yuffie had noticed I was awake and had given a squeal of joy. "Squally!"

Tifa grabbed the Ninja and pulled her away before she could leap on me and hug me. Sitting up, I realized I was in the infirmary, my head ached dully, and I had no idea of how I'd gotten here. "What…?" And then my memory slipped back into my head.

My throat closed and my chest tightened painfully. I put my head in my hands and took a deep breath. "Oh Leon," I heard Yuffie say softly. An arm slid around my shoulders but I didn't have the will to shrug it off. "I'm so sorry." Someone was shifting around on the floor in an uncomfortable manner and I wondered who else was in the room that I had not noticed.

Taking another slow breath, I looked up from my hands. Besides Yuffie and Tifa, Cid was there looking somber. His unlit cigarette was hanging limply in his mouth.

I made sure I could trust my voice before asking, "How long have I been out?"

"A day and a half," Tifa replied evenly. "You looked like you've been having bad dreams." No shit. Anyone would if they'd just lost their lover just after they got them back. And Cloud might not be… No, stop thinking.

"But we didn't want to wake you up yet. Yuffie however," Tifa glared slightly at the Ninja, though it was half-hearted. "Couldn't take it anymore."

I wondered how bad I had looked during my nightmares for Yuffie to have wanted to wake me up. I wasn't about to ask. Nightmares were better left alone sometimes.

The only problem left was how I had gotten back here.

"What happened?" I couldn't bring myself to say the last part of the question that included Cloud.

"You went nuts," Yuffie said with a silly grin on her face as if she had enjoyed my going "nuts".

"Yuffie!" Tifa snapped and shot a death look at her. Yuffie didn't look humbled in the least. She just sighed.

I loved her sympathy for me.

"Could you explain what you mean by going nuts?" My sarcasm was poorly masked. All well.

Cid nodded and began. "Well, what happened was…"

**POV

* * *

**

Leon screamed out something long and wailing, almost inhuman. Tifa held fast, but only for a little while longer. Leon was struggling like a madman. Besides the fact that he was bigger and stronger than Tifa; I hadn't expected Tifa to be able to hold Leon for too much longer.

He broke free and I readied myself for anything. Something had changed about Leon.

He was hunched over, his hands over the back of his neck as though he were trying to protect himself from something. His body shuddered and his very skin rippled, like there thousands of insects underneath it trying to escape.

And then I realized what was happening.

"Shit," I growled. Then I shouted, "He changing!" Tifa backed away to what she probably figured was a safe distance. We watched, transfixed, as Leon flew through his change. His clothing split at the seams and it seemed like whatever was under his skin exploded and then clung to him in shaggy brown fur. Leon the wolf shook his head and then swung to look in Seifer's direction.

The little bastard looked shocked and his face had visibly paled. I grinned slightly as Seifer's mouth gaped like he was a fish out of water.

Leon leaped forward, headed towards Seifer who seemed to have suddenly regained his bearings.

He had lifted his Gunblade and was aiming the glowing blue blade at Tifa.

"Tifa!" Sora screamed at her from somewhere behind me.

"Get down!" I added, and looked between her and Seifer. Tifa looked at Seifer and dropped as though her legs had been swept out from under her.

I saw Leon leap at Seifer, his jaws closing around Seifer's wrist with a loud crunch. The blue energy from the sword slammed into the wall to the left of Tifa. Wolf Leon dragged Seifer to the ground by his wrist and then released Seifer. He backed away a little and watched as Seifer squeezed his eyes shut and then reached for his sword with his good arm. Which, wasn't really his good arm because he struggled and shook as he tried to lift it.

He made some head way and started to sit up, but then Leon darted in and snapped at Seifer's side. He opened a bloody hole there and then danced backwards as Seifer screamed.

While this was going on, I had a moral dilemma. Yes, I, Cid had a moral dilemma. Should I let Leon torment Seifer and then knock out Leon? Or should I knock out Leon now and put Seifer out of his misery? Did Seifer really deserve this?

I didn't get a chance to decide because Leon had jumped in again and sunk his teeth into Seifer's throat. Seifer flailed and gurgled until Leon jerked his head up and away. As Seifer's motions stilled, Leon directed his attention towards the Door to the Light.

I regarded Seifer's lifeless body and again wondered if that had been a bit of overkill. Looking from Seifer to the shaggy wolf sitting in front of the Door, I put those moral dilemma thoughts from my mind and cautiously approached Leon.

"Cid…" For once, Yuffie sounded worried and not arrogant. Without looking back, I shook my head and continued approaching Leon. He turned and looked at me and I wondered if he had heard me coming or if he had just guessed.

"Leon, come on." He tilted his head as if considering what I said. He stood, and then his ears flattened and he snarled.

Okay, so this wasn't going to go smoothly.

He stalked towards me, head low and teeth bared. At about twenty feet away from me, he crouched, paused, and then leaped.

I brought the shaft of my spear into his stomach and flipped him over. He crashed to the ground with a yelp. Twisting my spear, I cracked him over the head with it. He went down in a heap and stayed there.

And then someone tackled me from the side. "No Cid! Don't kill him! No! He's not bad!" Sora had me in a bear hug. Who knew the kid had it in him to actually attack me?

"Get off, stupid runt!" I shoved Sora off of me and stood up with a scowl. He tried to leap at me again and I held out my hand. All he succeeded in doing was pushing his head against my hand and waving his hands in a feeble attempt to grab me. "I'm not going to kill him. He's just knocked out."

Sora stopped running into my hand and stared at the unconscious Leon. Tifa was standing over him and Yuffie was tentatively petting his head. "Oh…" he said softly. Riku grabbed his hand and squeezed.

With a sigh I said, "Alright. Let's get back home.

**POV

* * *

**

I rubbed my head and narrowed my eyes at Cid. He shrugged, grinned and held up his hands palm up. "What else was I supposed to go? You were going to eat me."

But the fact was, I wasn't really angry that he'd hit me. I shook my head and looked down at my hands. It was a good thing Cid had balls; what else would I have done if he hadn't knocked me out? As it was, I couldn't remember what had transpired and that really bothered me. Bothered me a lot.

How could I have lost control like that?

Hell, who was I kidding? The truth was, I knew why I had lost control. But I didn't want to admit to it. I'd lost Cloud, and I lost my mind somewhere along the way too, I guess. Thankfully, I'd gotten my mind back, but still…

Had Seifer deserved to be ripped up like that? You look at everything he did to me and Cloud and our friends… He deserved some kind of pain.

But to die?

I sighed, frustrated that I'd finally achieved getting rid of Seifer and I felt _guilty_ about it. What the hell was up with that?

"Don't worry about it, Leon. Seifer was going to shoot Tifa. And besides, he screwed us all over." I knew Cid was trying to make me feel better, but it didn't really help. I sighed but didn't reply. There was nothing for me to say.

Cid stood up. "Well, I have some things to do." So he left. I think he just wanted to get away from the dreary atmosphere I was creating.

"What is everyone else doing?" Tifa sat in a chair next to the bed and Yuffie was inspecting a plant on the table. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and put my elbows on my knees so I could lean on my hands.

Yuffie looked up from the plant. "Vincent went off to wander. We're not expecting him back. Despite what he might say." She sighed and looked a little sad before continuing. "The boys and Yuna went out to the forest to play around. And Cid, Tifa and I stayed here to keep an eye on you." She grinned. "'Cause you need a lot of looking after."

I growled and Yuffie just smiled at me. Even though it made my head swim a bit, I stood up. "Leon, sit down." Tifa stood and put a hand on my shoulder as if to push my down. Twisting my shoulders out from under her hand, I stepped away and shook my head.

"I'm going for a walk."

"I'll come with you," Yuffie and Tifa both said at the same time.

"No," I snarled. Then I softened my voice. It wasn't like I was angry at them. "No, I'll be fine by myself." I wanted to go by myself because I didn't want them to know where I was going. Because they probably wouldn't approve. And then they'd get Cid in here to haul my ass back to bed. Or hit me in the head with his spear again. "And I'll be back before nightfall. So don't worry."

* * *

I ran my hands over the Door to the Light and wondered how Ansem had gotten it to open. There was nothing that I could latch onto and attempt to pry it open, and no slits between the doors that I could stick anything into either. However Ansem had gotten the door to open, I don't think I'd be able to do the same thing to get it open.

Frustrated I slammed my fist on the door, but nothing happened.

I didn't really expect anything to happen either, but hey, it was worth a shot.

Pacing around the cave, I looked at the mass of footprints in the dirt floor. It looked as if someone had been doing a crazy dance. Or at least that's what I would have thought if I hadn't known what really happened.

I placed my feet in one set of prints, even though I wasn't quite sure whose they were. They were a bit small, but that didn't bother me. Instead, I followed the footprints as best I could, without getting confused with the rest of the prints.

Following them, I realized it was a bit like dancing. Except, for these kind of movements you'd have some kind of weapon in your hand and you'd be hacking people up.

What a wonderful thought.

Maybe it came to mind because I saw the area of dirt that was a different color than everything around it. Without even getting closer, I knew that that was where I'd killed Seifer.

Pausing in my imagined "dance", I looked at the burgundy colored dirt and then down at my hands again. I turned abruptly and stalked out of the cave. Maybe I shouldn't have gone down there. What was down there except bad things that turned into even worse nightmares?

Maybe there had been some lingering hope that perhaps I might be able to get the doors open. Or maybe that Cloud would be waiting there for me. Stupid yes. But hope is the last thing people have left to lose. When that's lost, what else do you have to fall back on?

Out of the cave, fresh air hit me in a welcoming breeze. I closed my eyes and breathed it all in as if it would just wash everything away into nothingness. Into that white place of no feeling.

Heading off into the trees, I stripped out of my clothes and started to change. There was a sudden spike of fear when I finished, as if I was waiting for myself to lose control again. But nothing like that happened. I was just left standing there, rigid and waiting for something that was unlikely to come back.

For some_one_ who was unlikely to come back.

What do they say? It's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all?

I took off through the trees, ignoring the slap and tug of the branches.

I doubt whoever said that had ever loved and lost. It was not a good feeling at all. Not even a feeling where you could kind of think you could get over it.

Twice I lost Cloud and twice he'd come back. I guess the third times the charm.

Though at this point, I was kind of wishing I had never loved at all. Because you don't' know what the pain of lost love feels like until you have loved and lost. And if you don't know what something is, than it can't really hurt you.

I wouldn't let myself be hurt again.

* * *

Yay! End! Last chapter coming up. Woooo!

Todpirscher


	9. Chapter 9

Blah, long time between updates. Sorry. Sorry also, because this is the last chapter.

* * *

This world was odd in every possible meaning of the word.

I knew I was in pain. Some distant nerve endings were screaming pain at my brain, yet I couldn't feel anything. Looking down at my body, I couldn't really tell if anything had been damaged; I didn't know what was hurting. And I didn't know what kind of damage a Gunblade did anyway.

Standing, I looked around and found this place to be…pretty interesting. Twisted blue rocks jutted out of the ground and rose high into the equally blue sky. It was difficult to tell where the sky began and the land ended.

But I wasn't here to sight see. Hell, I shouldn't even be here at all.

Turning around I looked for a door – any door – that would lead out of here.

Well, actually, the door that had dumped me here in the first place.

As I spun in a three-sixty, I saw more blue rocks. I was about to set off in a random direction to see if that got me anywhere, when I noticed something shiny between some of the rocks.

That looks promising.

Picking my way over the rocks, I found myself standing in front of – what I hoped was – the back of the Door to the Light. Which got me thinking. I looked around at the blue rocks and the blue sky. Maybe the door should be called the Door to the Blue or something. Because, this place wasn't all that bright.

The door didn't look all that special. I mean, it looked exactly the same here as it did on the outside. Looking over its surface and around it one last time, I decided that the best thing to try in order to get out was to just push on the door.

Sheathing my Buster sword, I put my hands against the smooth door, half expecting myself to burst into flames or something crazy like that. Was I allowed to get out? Would the door not open? Would I be stuck here forever?

I could feel myself starting to freak out for a number of reasons. The number one reason being that I might never be able to see Squall again. The number two reason being that I might starve to death. I could not see myself being with food. Ever.

Oh, yeah, and I couldn't see myself without Squall. Either. Eheh.

Taking a deep breath and refusing to think about the matter any further, I pushed on the door and stepped forward.

Nothing happened.

Growling, I pushed harder and threw myself into the door. The door shuddered, but still, nothing happened. Dully, I could feel pain building somewhere.

Ignoring it, I took a step back and launched myself at the door. It groaned and then gave way as I fell forward onto my face.

For a moment, I couldn't see anything. Had I been thrown somewhere worse than the blue place?

No, the world was coming into focus. Everything spun about me for a little bit, and then it settled, like one of those spinning rides that leaves you disoriented even after you've stopped moving. As I slowly started to stand up, pain exploded in my side. Gasping, I let myself fall on my hands and knees, eyes screwed up tight.

Running into the door hadn't been the smartest idea after all. Even if it had gotten me out of that place.

Once all the pain had receded, I tried again to stand up, moving even more slowly. My sides burned warningly, but there was no exploding pain this time. Staggering slightly once I finally made it up to a standing position, I looked around.

Still in the cave, but there was no one else there. Taking a deep breath, I assessed everything else that couldn't me seen.

The first thing that hit me was blood. Old blood by at least a couple of days. My stomach clenched until I realized that I didn't recognize whoever's blood it was. Hopefully it was someone that I didn't like.

The next smell I picked up on was Squall's fairly recent scent.

I took a tentative step forward and nothing happened. Twisting around by small increments, I saw that the Door to the Light was still standing there. It stood there with a sense of authoritative finality. How a door could have authoritative finality, I don't know. But that's just what it felt like.

So, with my own sense of "authoritative finality" I took another step forward.

It was going to take a long time for me to make it back home.

* * *

"Holy shit!"

Cid hadn't realized I was in his room until I'd stumbled because the pain was really starting to get to me. And now, he was pushing his chair away from table, a bewildered look on his face.

"How the fu – " He shook his head and then simply grinned. "I thought we'd lost ya. Good to see yer still up and around though."

I couldn't help but grin at Cid. Even so, my voice was a little tight when I said, "Uh, Cid? You wouldn't mind getting Yuna would you? Everything kind of hurts."

He blinked for a moment, as if uncomprehending that I was in pain. Then he blinked once, twice and then realization flooded his face.

Yay! One point for Cid!

Cid grabbed a chair and dragged it over to me. Situating it behind me, he commanded, "Sit" and then walked out of the room.

I collapsed into the chair, grateful that I was home and that maybe, just maybe, things would be getting back to normal.

It appeared as if I had been inside the Door for a couple of days, even though it had felt like only minutes to me.

As I sat there, I heard footsteps coming down the hallway. Cid must have picked up Yuna and everyone else because there were way too many different footsteps for there to be just two people. My heart thumped double time as I realized that Squall would be there. Straining, I tried to pick out his footsteps from everyone else's, but it was impossible; there were just way too many different sets to pick out one.

Unfortunately, the way Cid had situated my chair, my back was to the door and I couldn't see everyone as they filed in. Sure, I could have turned my chair around, but why put myself through more pain? I wasn't even sure if I would have been able to get up and move the chair in the first place. And besides, everyone walked to my front to grin at me while Yuna was cutting off my shirt to look at the damage.

The only person who I didn't see was Squall.

My grin creased slightly into a frown and I looked over everyone just to make sure that I hadn't missed him.

Yes, I know, me miss Squall? Impossible. But, I'd rather me miss him than him be missing.

"Where's – "

Yuna's healing process made me wince in pain and I didn't get to finish my sentence. The whole fast healing thing was great, but the pain aspect of it wasn't that great.

"He disappeared," Tidus said softly, almost too softly that a human wouldn't hear him. But I picked it up and zeroed in on him.

Tidus was standing between Tifa and Cid who was grasping his upper arm in what was probably a vice-like grip. I winced again and said, "What did you say, Tidus?"

Cid released his arm with a glare, seeing that nothing would dissuade me from getting information out of Tidus, or anyone for that matter.

"He disappeared a day ago. We're not sure where he went." Tidus shuffled slightly under my gaze and averted his eyes to the floor.

Yuna pressed on my ribs, sending a jolt of pain through me. I snarled, making her jump, but I didn't turn to look at her.

"Thanks, Tidus. When were you guys going to tell me this? Did you think I wouldn't notice?"

Tifa shook her head. "Cloud, calm down. You're freaking out for no reason." Tifa, calm and collected as usual. "We wanted to get you all fixed up first. This way, when you did find out about Leon, you could go looking for him."

It was my turn to avert my eyes and look sheepish. No one commented on it though.

Yuna finished, saying, "You're all fixed." There was no edge in her voice, no anger. Just understanding and happiness. I looked at her apologetically and she smiled knowingly.

"Is everything, you know, with Ansem… Is everything done and over with?" Cid nodded slowly. "What about Seifer?"

"Oh, Leon took care of him," Yuffie said gleefully. The blood on the ground back at the cave… That must have been Seifer's. Good. He was out of our hair now. Permanently.

I started to stand up to go in search of Squall when Sora's soft voice asked, "What was it like? Inside the door?"

Turning to look at the mousy haired brunette, I grinned and said, "You're not missing much, kid. Trust me on this." He looked skeptical for a moment, but then he nodded, that huge silly grin on his face.

"Can we go now?"

"Impatient as ever," Riku half-mocked. I rolled my eyes at him. It wasn't worth it to refute him at the moment.

All I wanted to do right now was find Squall.

* * *

I'd left the others behind a long time ago. My nose down to the ground, snuffling through various scents and what not; I was concentrating more on following Squall's erratic trail than on whether or not everyone was still behind me.

Worst comes to worst, if they felt they'd _really_ lost me, it wasn't as if they couldn't find their way back.

Finding a stronger trail, I loped forward, dodging branches and rocks and trunks of fallen trees. Almost there.

I jumped over a log, but instead of jumping onto solid ground, I jumped into a river. _Shit_, I growled. Jumping out of the water, I shook myself and then started to trot down the length of the river, trying to pick up the scent again.

When I did, it was about sixty feet downstream. I took off again, threading my way though the forest. I pushed through some bushes out into a clearing.

It took me a moment to register what I was seeing, and once I had registered what I was seeing, my mind refused to believe it. My body shuddered as I changed back into a human. He was easier to see with human eyes, lying on the ground, arms crossed over his stomach.

That's what made it difficult to tell if he was breathing. I mean, part of me thought it was ridiculous that he was dead. Why the hell would he be dead? But the other part of me, the part that was so afraid of losing him that it was going into panic overdrive mode.

Kneeling next to him, I moved to put my hands on his face and chest.

"About time you got here." I fell back on my ass as Squall said that.

"You scared the shit out of me! That wasn't funny!" I glared at him as he rolled onto his side and propped himself up on one elbow. The glare didn't last too long though. I was just so happy to see him again. "Why did you run off?"

Squall paused and frowned ever so slightly. "I was going to leave. Just, wander away somewhere and never come back."

My mouth dropped open slightly in disbelief. He was going to give up? "Why?"

"Because I thought that I'd lost you forever. How the hell was I supposed to know that you were going to come back out of that stupid Door? In one piece no less."

I shook my head. "That was Yuna's doing."

"Either way," Squall continued, "I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to face moving all your stuff to another room again. It was hard enough the first the time."

He looked at me for a moment before saying, "You know, you really _do _have to stop disappearing and "dying" on me. At this rate, I might go gray before I'm thirty."

I shook my head. "And that will mean what to me? You'll just be the hottest looking gray haired man I've ever seen."

Squall raised an eyebrow at me. "That doesn't mean I _want_ to be gray. I don't think you'd want to be either. Although, I think you're hair is light enough that it might be mistaken as white, and people might think you're old."

I could feel the panic in my face before I even realized I had reached my hands up to my hair and was saying, "You really think so?"

He smirked at me and I dropped my hands. "With a body like that? No way." I grinned as he came and kneeled in front of front of me. Taking my face in his hands he leaned in and pressed his lips gently against mine.

As he pulled away I said, "So you think this is the end?"

He sat next to me, and then pulled my torso onto his lap, rubbing his thumb over the bridge of my nose. His nose was still kind of bruised but it was looking better than when I had first seen him with it.

"The end of what?"

I thought for a moment, trying to articulate an answer. But, it wasn't coming to me so I just shrugged and said, "I don't know." Pause. Finally a light went on in my head. "Do you think that we'll be able to wake up and not worry anymore about whether or not the other one is going to die?"

"Oh, I'd worry all the time whether or not you're going to die anyway." I reached up to swat at Squall but he grabbed my hand and pressed it to my chest. "Play nice."

I started to count the seconds because I knew he was going to say something else. I was just waiting for it. Waiting…

"Either way, it doesn't matter what happens. We'll have each other," he wrapped his arms around me. "We have our friends." We could hear them walking around somewhere, far away from where we were. "And as far as I'm concerned, that's all that really matters." I closed my eyes and leaned into his chest.

"I love you Squall."

He leaned down, and just before his lips touched mine in another kiss, he whispered, "I love you too, Cloud."

* * *

So, I hope you guys liked it. I think I liked my first one a lot better. Someone reviewed that it was a bit too weird to swallow and I think I agree. But, either way, I finished, and I hope you guys liked it regardless.

Am I going to pump out another story? Yes. In the near future? Most likely not. I think I'll finish writing the whole story first and then upload the whole thing at once. Or upload them at weekly intervals or whatever. I will be staying away from magical stuff in the next one though.

Wooooooooooooo!  
Carpe Diem

Todpirscher


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